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THE    DEVELOPMENT 


OF 


Constitutional    Liberty 


English   Colonies  of  America 


BY 


EBEN    GREENOUGH    SCOTT 


The  Spirit  of  Liberty  is,  indeed,  a  bold  and  fearless  spirit. " 

Daniel  Webster. 

**  Les  nations  libres  sont  sttperbes" — Montesquieu 


NEW    YORK 

G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

27    &    29    WEST    2 3D    STREET 
1890 


'f^ 


COPYRIGHT    BY 

G.   P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1882 


Press  of 
P.  Putnam*s  Sons 
Ne7v    York 


^ 

^ 


TKIS    WORK    IS    DEDICATED    TO 


FRANKLIN    B.   GOVVEN 

IN    TOKEN    OF    ANCIENT    FRIENDSHIP,    AND    IN    RECOGNITION    OF 
HIS   CONSTANT    SYMPATHY    WITH    LITERARY    EFFORT. 


^  L  \J  ^'  ^j'  t 


A^  A    V>   O' 


PREFACE 


THIS  work  embraces  a  comprehensive  view  of  those  things 
in  the  life  of  the  American  people,  previous  to  the  War 
for  Independence,  which  are  necessary  to  be  known  in  order  to 
clearly  understand  why  we  are  what  we  are.  It  discloses  the 
Plan  of  Development  contained  in  the  history  of  colonial  life 
in  America. 

It  is  shown,  that  these  United  States  are  the  direct  and  legiti- 
mate offspring  of  that  great  intellectual  movement,  which,  for 
want  of  a  better  term,  men  called  the  Reformation  ;  that  the  Free 
Inquiry  thence  evolved,  passed  from  religious  subjects  to  politi- 
cal, and  gave  us,  at  last,  as  it  had  before  given  the  people  of  Eng- 
land, a  really  constitutional  government  established  on  Freedom 
of  Conscience  and  the  Liberty  of  the  Citizen.  The  change  that 
came  over  us,  as  we  passed  from  the  age  of  Religious  Inquiry 
through  that  of  State  Development,  is  described ;  and  the  causes 
which  made  us  what  we  are,  and  those  which  prompted  us  to  do 
what  we  did,  having  been  set  forth,  the  events  are  narrated  and 
the  impulses  disclosed,  which,  step  by  step,  impelled  us  to  assume 
the  responsibility  of  independence  and  to  take  our  place  among 
the  great  powers. 

In  considering  this  plan  of  Development  the  three  great  Eras 
into  which  it  is  divided  are  observed  in  connection  : — The  Era  of 
Constitutional  Development  in  England  ;  the  Era  of  State  Devel- 


VI  PREFA  CE, 

opment  in  America  ;  and  the  Era  of  Constitutional  Development 
in  America.  The  motive  of  each  of  these  is  likewise  revealed  :  that 
of  the  First  Era  being  Freedom  of  Conscience,  that  of  the  Second 
the  Development  of  Tribal  Institutions,  and  that  of  the  Third 
being  the  Longing  for  Popular  Sovereignty.  Throughout  this 
Trilogy  of  Eras  glowed  the  Spirit  of  Liberty,  which,  in  the  final 
stage,  became  fierce,  and  crowned  its  long  task  by  giving  to  our 
people  political,  religious,  and  personal  freedom  guaranteed  by 
constitution. 

It  is  only  when  surveying  its  course  from  the  eminence  upon 
which  the  lapse  of  time  has  placed  us,  that  the  action  of  the  law 
of  development  can  be  viewed  in  its  entirety,  and  the  constant 
force  of  its  energy  be  calculated.  Then  we  see,  that  this  energy 
has  expanded  or  advanced  by  steps  of  unequal  length;  that  the 
development  of  the  race  or  tribe  is  marked  by  successive  stages  ; 
and  that  the  law  which  controls  this  energy  is  to  be  found  in 
these  stages  or  eras,  and  not  in  the  individual  phenomena  which 
have  been  but  its  temporary  expressions.  Thus  it  is,  that  his- 
torical eras — which  may  be  described  as  historical  phenomena 
grouped  into  organic  systems — are  of  greater  importance  to  human 
knowledge  than  individual  phenomena  ;  and  thus  it  is,  that  the 
philosopher  will  seek  the  truth  of  history  in  eras  rather  than  in 
the  events  of  a  day  or  the  acts  of  individuals,  however  striking  to 
the  eye  they  may  be. 

This  work  is  the  result  of  an  endeavor  to  extract  the  truth  of 
our  early  history  by  an  application  of  the  principle  thus  disclosed  ; 
and  hence  it  is,  that  it  is  not  a  history  but  a  philosophical  con- 
templation of  what  is  known  to  be  history.  As  such,  therefore, 
it  makes  no  pretension  to  the  discovery  of  new  facts  or  the  dis- 
play of  learning ;  but,  leaving  the  domain  of  original  research  un- 
touched in  that  respect,  and  presuming  a  knowledge  of  accepted 
history  to  be  in  the  reader,  it  confines  itself  strictly  to  the  work  of 
evolving  therefrom  the  historical  plan  of  development.    The  lap:se 


PREFACE.  V-11 

of  time  and  the  patient  research  of  earnest  and  conscientious 
workers  have  at  last  enabled  this  to  be  done.  The  notes  and  the 
matter  in  the  Appendix,  then,  are  given  rather  to  assist,  or  to 
explain,  than  to  instruct,  and,  whenever  possible,  are  drawn  from 
sources  familiar  to  the  general  reader,  or  easily  to  be  referred 
to  by  him. 

The  Commercial  Relations  of  the  Colonies  to  the  mother- 
country  and  to  each  other  are  set  forth  at  large,  and  in  con- 
nection with  the  causes  that,  according  to  Mr.  Burke,  made  the 
spirit  of  our  liberty  fierce.  This  is  the  first  time  they  have  ap- 
peared in  our  literature  as  a  cause  of  P^evolution,  although  we 
have  had,  staring  us  in  the  face  for  three  fourths  of  a  century, 
the  positive  assertion  of  no  less  an  actor  in  the  achievement  of 
our  independence  than  John  Adams,  that  "if  any  man  wishes  to 
investigate  thoroughly  the  causes,  feelings,  and  principles  of  the 
Revolution,  he  must  study  this  Act  of  Navigation  and  the  Acts  of 
Trade,  as  a  philosopher,  a  politician,  and  a  philanthropist." 

This  done,  a  remarkable  hiatus  is  filled  up,  and  the  story  of 
our  development  from  feeble  communities  to  being  a  great  power 
is  believed  to  be  here  presented  with  all  its  stages  defined  and 
complete. 

Wilkes  Barr^j  Pa.,  yanuary^  1882. 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 


PART  I. —  The  Era  of  Constitutional  Development  in  England. 

CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

To  what  the  Anglican  migration  westward  was  due— The  United  States  the  result~of 
the  Great  Movement  or  Revolution  of  the  i6th  century— The  destructive  and  constructive 
periods  of  this  movement— The  course  of  the  Great  Revolution  in  the  British  Isles— The 
first  stage  of  its  Destructive  Era,  terminating  with  the  accession  of  Charles  I.;  the  second 
with  the  investiture  of  the  Protector— Results  of  these  Eras  of  Effort,  and  their  effect  upon 
absolutism— The  Constructive  Era,  which  began  with  the  Protectorate— The  absolutism  of 
the  Restoration  and  its  inherent  weakness— The  Nomenclature  of  the  Great  Revolution- 
Meaning  of  the  word  Puritanism— What  was  Puritanism,  and  what  did  it  do  for  England  ? 
—What  was  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  what  did  it  do  for  England  ?— The  law  of  histori- 
cal development  does  not  act  with  the  regularity'-  of  physical  laws ;  characteristic  of  its 
advance  and  retrogression— In  respect  to  the  Colonies,  the  effects  of  the  Revolution  of 
1688  were  moral,  not  physical— What  the  Revolution  of  1688  did  not  do  for  the  Colonies- 
Conditions  of  colonial  life  favorable  to  liberty— In  what  the  Revolution  of  1688  worked 
positive  ill  to  the  Colonies— William  the  Third  an  absolutist  in  America— The  relations 
of  the  Colonies  to  the  Government  during  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  the  early  Hanoverians— 
The  good  feeling  terminated  by  the  accession  of  George  III. — The  plan  of  absolutism,which, 
in  attacking  colonial  liberty,  was  really  aimed  at  the  liberty  of  England — ^The  popular 
feelings  which  aided  the  absolutists. 

The  two  Houses  of  Parliament  and  the  people  unite  with  the  throne  against  the  Colonies 
—The  immediate  cause  of  the  outbreak  in  America— The  Revolution  of  1776  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  same  force  which  produced  the  Revolution  of  1688— The  Revolution  of  1776 
accomplished  the  last  great  step  of  Revolution,  namely,  the  transfer  of  sovereignty 
from  the  throne  to  the  people — How  society  regarded  the  Revolution  of  1776 — Its 
cause  at  first  negative— Character  of  the  revolutionists— Character  of  the  Colonies — 
The  conditions  of  Colonial  life  favorable  to  local  self-government— Revolutions  not 
affairs  of  battle-fields — The  Revolution  of  1776  instructive  to  those  who  would  know  how 
to  be  free. 

Advantage  possessed  by  the  history  of  the  Caucasian  tribes  in  America  over  that  of 
others— The  Trilogy  of  Eras  which  embraces  the  historical  development  of  colonial 
British  America— The  controlling  Force  or  Motive  of  each  of  these  Eras— The  Spirit  of 
Liberty  manifest  in  all.  .........    5-26 


X  CONTENTS. 

PART  II,— The  Era  of  State  Development  in  America. 
CHAPTER   II. 

DESCENT.  REMOTENESS  OF  SITUATION.  THE  FORMS  OF  THE  CO- 
LONIAL GOVERNMENTS,  AND  THE  POLITICAL  RELATIONS  OF 
THE    COLONIES. 

Mr.  Burke's  Six  Capital  Sources  whence  the  fierceness  of  Liberty  in  the  Colonies  was 
derived— Two  additional  sources  or  causes:  the  Political  Relations  of  the  Colonics,  a.nd 
their  Commercial  Relations — i.  Descent — 2.  Remoteness  of  Situation  :  the  Laissez-faire 
policy,  or  policy  of  Governmental  indifference. 

3.  The  Forms  of  the  Colonial  Governments,  and  the  Political  Relations  of  the  Colonies, 
(a.)  Comparison  of  the  nature  of  the  English  Colonies  Avith  that  of  the  Roman  and 
Greek:  (i)  the  Roman  Colonies;  (2)  the  Greek  Colonies— The  English  more  like  the 
Greek  than  the  Roman;  points  of  resemblance  and  difference  ;  the  self-sustaining  nature 
of  the  English.  (5.)  Three  kinds  of  English  Colonies  in  America:  (i)  The  Royal  or  Provin- 
cial Colonies;  (2)  the  Proprietary  or  Palatine,  and  (3)  the  Charter— Political  separateness 
or  distinction  of  these  colonies  from  each  other,  and  effect  of  their  common  allegiance  to 
the  same  suzerain — Dr.  Robertson's  surprise  respecting  the  charters  commented  upon — 
The  Charters  as  compacts :  they  recognized  local  self-government— Amplification  of  the 
meaning  of  the  term  "  chartered  liberties."  {c.)  The  colonial  governments  one  in  spirit 
though  differing  in  form— Virginia :  its  exceptional  character— Maryland— Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  and  Delaware — Massachusetts — New  Hampshire— Connecticut— Rhode 
Island— New  York— Colonies  south  of  Virginia— Georgia— These  Colonies  free  and  self- 
governing  :  their  self-taxing  power  not  regarded  as  sources  of  revenue— Virginia's  resist- 
ance to  royal  monopoly. 

(d.)  The  institutional  nature  of  the  English  colonies— Definition  of  the  word  institu- 
tions— This  institutional  nature  a  race  characteristic— The  institutional  development  of 
the  English  colonies  shown  by  contrast  with  the  French  colonies— The  English  carried 
with  them  institutional  vigor;  the  French  did  not :  illustrations— The  extinction  of  French 
power  in  America  to  be  attributed  to  the  paucity  and  weakness  of  institutions— The  insti- 
tutions of  British  America  as  ancient  as  the  race. 

(e.)  English  colonization  under  the  Stuarts— How  it  was  that  franchises  were  lavished 
so  freely  on  the  colonists— The  predisposition  of  the  English  colonists  to  self-govern- 
ment a  tribal  characteristic — Love  of  the  soil  closely  allied  witli  disposition  for  self- 
government — Self-government  coincident  with  the  landing  of  a  colony,  and  simultaneous 
appearance  of  institutions— Effect  upon  the  colonists  of  the  contempt  mai:-.tained  by  the 
English  commercial  classes :  loyalty  of  the  former — Political  independence  a  natural 
sequence  of  the  fierceness  of  liberty.  .......    29-58 

CHAPTER  III. 

RELIGION    IX    THE     NORTHERN    PROVINCES. 

Mystidsfti  :  Rationalism  :  Faith. 

Religion  in  the  Northern  Provinces :  its  chief  feature  toleration  and  freedom  of  con- 
science— The  localities  where  the  principle  of  freedom  of  conscience  were  most  apparent — 
This  freedom  a  natural  progenitor  of  political  freedom— Free  Inquiry  passed  from  relig- 
ious to  secular  subjects  in  America  as  it  did  in  England,  but  without  violence— The  Colo- 
nies at  the  first  glance  unfavorable  to  religious  freedom :  intolerance,  nevertheless,  shown 
to  be  inherently  feeble— State  religion,  how  regarded  by  the  English  previous  to  the  Com- 
monwealth ;  dissent  regarded  as  heretical— Rule  for  ascertaining  the  existence  of  toleration 
or  intolerance  in  a  community— Intolerance  natural  at  the  time  of  colonial  settlement,  and 
universal— Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  exceptions. 


CONTENTS.  XI 

I. —  The  Mysticism  of  West  yersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

Quakerism  :  its  mysticism,  and  the  illustration  it  aflFords  of  a  union  of  freedom  of  con- 
science and  state  instead  of  a  union  of  church  and  state  :  effect  of  its  appearance  in 
America— Rise  of  the  sect  of  Quakers,  and  character— What  Quakerism  attempted,  and 
what  it  failed  to  attain— Its  decline— Appearance  of  the  Quakers  in  "West  Jersey  and  Penn- 
sylvania—Apathetic condition  of  Freedom  of  Conscience  at  the  time  of  their  arrival — 
Their  advent  propitious  to  its  continued  existence  as  a  social  force — Freedom  of  Con- 
science in  Rhode  Island— To  what  the  favorable  influence  of  Quakerism  upon  this  prin- 
ciple was  due— The  Quakers  of  West  Jersey — Their  first  enactment  is  declarative  of  free- 
dom of  conscience  as  a  political  principle — The  constitution  of  their  polity  :  its  glory  and 
its  defects— Their  notion  of  p^overnment,  a  f^overnment  by  the  people— Pennsylvania  a  re- 
sult of  West  Jersey— The  Quakerism  of  Pennsylvania  a  necessary  expression  of  freedom 
of  conscience — The  times  propitious  to  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania — Charter  of  Penn- 
sylvania: it  recognizes  local  self-government — Comparison  of  it  with  the  charters  of 
Maryland  and  Rhode  Island— Steps  taken  by  Penn  before  leaving  England— Declaration 
of  Toleration — The  Great  Law  of  Chester  :  its  provisions — It  shows  Penn  to  be  in  advance 
of  his  followers  in  respect  to  freedom  of  conscience — The  prudence  and  foresight  dis- 
played in  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania :  early  prosperity  of  the  colony— Passiveness  of 
Quakerism  :  its  effect  in  saving  freedom  of  conscience  to  America — Freedom  of  conscience 
in  Pennsylvania  the  gift  of  an  individual,  and  not  a  conquest  won  by  society.  .    59-81 

CHAPTER  IV. 

RELIGION    IN    THE    NORTHERN    PROVINCES Continued. 

II, — Rationalism  of  N'eiu  Englajtd. 

In  New  England  Freedom  of  Conscience  rises  from  Society  instead  of  descending  upon 
it— Puritanism  of  New  England  a  direct  expression  of  the  Great  Revolution  or  Move- 
ment—One and  the  same  thing  with  the  Puritanism  of  England— Llistorical  importance  of 
the  New  England  colonization — The  most  emphatic  expression  of  insubordination  the 
times  afforded— The  immediate  cause  of  the  Puritan  migration— Its  motive  one  with  that 
of  the  Puritan  Revolution. 

The  Pilgrim  or  Brownist  migration — The  Mayflower  Compact— Not  democratic- 
Analysis  of  the  Compact— Importance  of  its  assertion  of  autonom}' — An  oligarch^'  flowed 
from  it. 

The  real  Puritan  migration  oegins  with  Winthrop's  band  of  colonists— Character  of 
these  colonists— Their  love  of  learning— The  early  Puritan  a  reformer — Not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  Independents  or  Separatists— Early  Puritans  a  class  rather  than  a  sect- 
Distinction  between  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan  Fathers— The  Puritan  of  the  reign  of 
James  I. 

The  Puritan  emigration  brought  Puritanism  pure  and  simple  into  New  England,  and 
assumed  a  sectarian  character— Motive  of  this  emigration— The  object  of  emigration  did 
not  include  the  foundation  of  a  State  free  in  politics  and  religion — Freedom  came  by 
natural  development — Pohtical  well-being  dependent  upon  natural  development — The 
true  greatness  and  well-being  of  a  people  to  be  ascertained  only  by  observing  its  growth 
—The  law  of  development— Its  action  is  slow— This  action  illustrated  by  the  career  of 
Freedom  of  Conscience  among  the  English. 

To  what  the  development  of  New  England  character  is  due — Early  Puritanism  in 
America  uneventful— Inefficacy  of  the  early  Puritan  literature— The  polemical  strifes- 
Extraordinary  diffusion  of  education  among  the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  Puritans- 
Adverse  effects  of  an  oligarchy  upon  the  development  of  literature — The  part  performed 
by  the  rage  for  disputation— Its  ultimate  inclusion  of  secular  as  well  as  religious  subjects, 
and  its  final  change  from  disputatic/n  to  discussion :  the  Debating  Society— Effects  of  early 
controversial  theology. 


XI 1  CONTENTS. 

Advent  of  Roger  Williams  in  Massachusetts :  the  part  he  performed  in  his  life :  the  first 
to  make  Freedom  of  Conscience  a  constitutional  principle  of  polity — His  life  previous  to 
his  arrival  in  America— His  personal  character  at  the  time  of  his  coming— The  facts  con- 
cerning his  trial  and  expulsion  from  Massachusetts— The  action  of  his  judges  not  cen- 
surable— Historical  significance  of  the  trial  of  Roger  Williams — The  condition  of  the 
doctrine  of  toleration  in  the  Plantations  it  disclosed — That  doctrine  involved  in  the  issue 
of  the  trial— Development  of  Williams'  ideas  into  a  system— Soul-liberty— His  disunion  of 
Church  and  State — His  notion  of  the  relations  held  toward  each  other  by  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  powers— The  new  subjects  his  doctrines  gave  to  discussion— Growth  and  ex- 
pansion of  these  doctrines — His  ultimate  view  of  Freedom  of  Conscience — The  view 
taken  by  him  of  the  relations  between  the  Indians  and  civilization— Character  of 
Williams — Effect  of  his  doctrines  on  American  society — Effect  of  his  doctrines  on  Vane 
and  Milton. 

III. — Faith  of  Maryland. 

Settlement  of  Maryland— Sketch  of  Calvert— His  character— His  early  attempts  at 
colonization — Condition  of  the  Roman  Catholics  under  the  pra-77tunire  statutes — Calvert 
first  seeks  Virginia,  but  ineffectually — Difference  between  the  New  England  and  Proprie- 
tary Charters— The  Maryland  Charter— Aristocracy  and  faith  serve  Freedom  of  Con- 
science along  with  democracy  and  rationalism.     ......    82-123 

CHAPTER  V. 

MANNERS     IN     THE     SOUTHERN     PROVINCES  ;      MANNERS     OF      THE 

FRONTIER. 

1.  Southern  Life  and  iJ/rt««^rj.— Enlargement  of  this  capital  source— The  type  to  be 
found  in  Virginia  and  Maryland — Topography  of  these  two  provinces — Their  distribution 
of  population,  and  character  of  the  people— Contrast  between  distribution  of  population 
in  New  England  and  in  the  South — What  caused  the  difference — Disassociation  the  char- 
acteristic of  Southern  distribution  ;  it  was  enhanced  by  the  topography  of  the  country- 
Personal  effect  of  isolation— Simplicity  and  purity  of  the  language  preserved— Lincor- 
rupted  by  the  planters'  foreign  tours — Political  effect  of  isolation— Class  feeling  and  sense 
of  individuality  heightened  by  absence  of  middle  class  and  isolation— Rare  development 
of  domestic  life— Haughtiness  of  the  planter— His  hunger  after  land — His  love  of  field 
sports— Freedom  and  purity  of  manners  in  the  South  between  the  sexes — Southern  hospi- 
tality :  its  refinement— The  winter  visit  to  the  colonial  capital— The  simplicity  of  life  and 
manners  extended  to  commercial  transactions— The  English  squirearchy- The  Southern 
squirearchy — Society  in  the  Piedmont  and  tlie  Valley — Its  antagonism  to  the  intolerance 
of  the  sea-board— How  it  differed  from  the  planter  society. 

2.  Manners  of  the  Frontier. — The  Leatherstockings  and  Pioneers — Their  mode  of  life — 
Their  military  efficiency — The  actual  process  of  social  organization  on  the  frontier,  from 
the  block-house  to  the  city— The  love  of  local  self-government  manifests  itself  at  every 
step  as  the  directing  force — The  sense  of  personal  freedom  in  the  frontiersman  greater  than 
thesense  of  political  responsibility.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    124-153 

CHAPTER  VI. 

MANNERS    IN    THE    MIDDLE    PROVINCES. 

3.  Pennsylvania. — The  colonists  commercial  and  agricultural — The  different  classes — 
Opposition  to  Quakerism— Greater  diversity  of  nationality  and  manners  than  in  the 
South — Philadelphia:  its  opulence  ;  culture;  famous  men— Its  social  life  :  Black's  Diary — 
The  colonial  metropolis :  its  printing  presses  ;  schools  ;  learned  societies — The  German 
element  in  Pennsylvania,  or  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch"  :  the  Scotch-Irish— Greater  diversity 
of  population  than  in  any  other  colony — Was  highly  conservative — The  progressive  party 
—The  spirit  of  liberty  in  Pennsylvania  stubborn  but  not  fierce.  .  .  .     154-163 


CONTENTS.  XI 11, 

CHAPTER  VII. 
NEW  England's  five  advantages  as  enumerated  by  john 

ADAMS;    AND    HEREIN   OF    EDUCATION. 

The  Five  Advantages  possessed  by  New  England  over  the  other  colonies— (<i)  Purity  of 
the  English  blood — {K)  The  institutions /or  the  support  of  religion^  morals^  and  decency. 

(<r)  Education.— ThQ  New  England  school  system  aided  by  concentration  of  population: 
contrarj'  effect  produced  by  the  dispersion  of  Southern  society — Education  in  the  South — 
Education  in  the  North  more  general  than  in  the  South— Education  in  Pennsylvania— Edu- 
cation in  New  England— It  contemplated  the  highest  culture  possible  :  Yale  and  Harvard 
—Learning  in  itself  not  productive,  but  preservative  of  freedom— Efifect  of  Northern  edu- 
cation upon  conceptions  of  government— The  support  lent  by  Northern  school  system  to 
democracy. 

id)  The  Township.— What  it  is  physically  and  politically— Its  character  more  administra- 
tive than  parliamentary — Its  structure — The  selectmen,  and  their  duties  ;  the  other  officers 
—Excellence  of  the  township  in  political  education— Division  and  concentration  of  its 
forces— The  township  a  purely  local  self-government— Its  development  of  active,  practical 
citizenship — The  part  performed  by  the  citizen  in  administering  its  affairs  ;  a  corrective  to 
tendency  to  excessive  abstraction— Attachment  of  the  New  Englander  to  his  township- 
Its  prominence  in  New  England  social  life— Its  effect  in  making  the  spirit  of  liberty  fierce. 

{e)  Distribution  of  httestates'  Estates,  «•/<:.- Real  estate  in  New  England  held  in  small 
parcels— Northern  society  democratic — The  course  of  descents,  etc.,  are  there  expressions 
of  democratic  tendency— Effects  of  diversity  of  principle  in  this  respect,  between  North 
and  South — Why  the  conflicting  social  constitutions  of  North  and  South  united  in  a  com- 
mon republic— Land  as  assets  for  payment  of  debts— Decline  of  Gothic  attachment  to  the 
soil— Curtailment  of  entails,  abolition  of  right  of  primogeniture,  repugnance  to  long 
trusts,  and  facilities  for  alienation  of  realty 

Review  of  the  Six  Capital  Sources :  their  tendency  to  make  liberty  fierce.  .    164-184 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    COMMERCIAL    RELATIONS    OF    THE    COLONIES. 

Effect  of  the  downfall  of  the  French  power  in  America  upon  the  relations  of  the  colo- 
nies to  the  mother-country  :  enforcemeni  of  the  Acts  of  Trade,  and  growing  restiveness 
of  the  colonists— The  Navigation  Act  of  Richard  II.  ;  the  Navigation  Act  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  the  policy  it  expressed— Effect  of  the  discovery  of  America  upon  commercial 
supremacy  :  Rise  of  the  Dutch — The  decline  of  Holland  a  result  of  the  Navigation  Act — 
What  led  England  to  adopt  this  measure— Effect  of  the  Act  upon  Monopoly. 

I.  The  Legislation  concerning  Trade  and  Navigation  : — ^The  Three  Acts  :  the  Restrictive 
System — England  becomes  the  colonial  Factor — The  Acts  extended  to  intercolonial 
trade :  the  angle  of  intercolonial  commerce — The  compensation  for  Monopoly,  derived  by 
the  colonists  from  the  Restrictive  System  :  (i)  the  pecuniary  or  material  compensation, 
(2)  the  political  or  moral. 

II.  The  Literature  having  colonial  trade  for  its  subject:  its  significance, — Political 
Economy  takes  its  place  as  a  science  and  divides  the  English  into  two  schools — Early 
English  writers  on  Political  Economy  :  {a)  Sir  Josiah  Child  and  his  Netv  Discourse  of 
TVrtrf^- Object  of  the  work— This  object  as  it  appeared  to  the  Americans — Their  view 
justified  by  the  work  itself— Child's  aspersions  of  Virginia  and  Barbadoes— Selections 
from  the  work  ;  comments  upon  them— Analysis  of  its  propositions— Designs  of  the  Eng- 
lish commercial  classes  disclosed  by  th*^  treatise — The  sentiments  are  generall)'^  adopted, 
and  the  Government  marks  its  approval  of  them.  {U)  Joshua  Gee  and  his  work  The 
Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain  Considered— U.e  advocates  colonial  taxation  for 
revenue — Local  self-government  now  definitely  established   in  the   colonies — Political 


XIV  CO  xV  TENTS. 

effect  of  taxing  the  colonies  for  revenue— Their  character  of  dominions  wholly  distinct 
from  that  of  commercial  dependencies— Gee's  propositions  tend  to  the  destruction  of  the 
character  of  domhiions— His  views  acceptable  to  the  Government ;  a  later  administration 
circulates  his  work  in  1767.  (c)  John  Ashley  and  his  Memoirs  and  Considerations  con- 
cerning the  Trade  and  Revenues  of  the  British  colonies  in  America — Follows  Child  and 
Gee,  and  also  advocates  colonial  taxation  for  revenue — Drift  of  public  opinion  shown  by 
these  treatises  to  be  unfriendly  toward  the  colonies— No  respect  exhibited  by  them  for  the 
Charters — Review  of  the  Restrictive  System — The  persistent  rage  for  regulation — Motive 
of  the  System  :  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to  impose  it  upon  the  colonies,  and  the  duty  of 
these  to  obey  it— Acceptance  of  it  by  the  emigrants  not  compulsory— the  inherent  defect 
of  the  Restrictive  System — The  conservative  disposition  of  the  Government  toward  the 
political  status  of  the  colonies:  the  laissez-faire  policy;  the  true  policy,  and  Walpole's 
rejoinder — Policy  of  the  Government  as  to  the  commercial  status  an  active  one — Meaning 
of  the  change  from  policy  of  indifference  to  interference  in  political  affairs  of  the  colonies 
— How  such  change  was  regarded  by  the  colonists  :  their  alarm  and  excitement.      185-229 


PART  III. —  The  Era  of  Constitutional  Development  in  America. 
CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    WOODEN    HORSE. 

Encroachments  of  the  Restrictive  System — The  forerunner  of  rebellion — Ashley's  prop- 
osition—His object :  terminology  of  the  Revenue  Acts— Governmental  construction  of 
*'the  Molasses  Acts" — Writs  of  Assistance — Their  nature— Otis'  Argument — Its  effect 
upon  those  who  heard  it— Its  effect  upon  the  people  of  all  the  colonies.       .  .    233-246 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE    CONFLICT    WITH    ABSOLUTISM. 

Barren  victory  of  the  Government ;  its  irresolute  action— Dissension  between  the  mother- 
country  and  the  colonies— George  Grcnville  ;  his  character — The  grounds  of  his  change 
of  policy — Their  falsity  shown — What  the  colonists  had  done  and  were  doing — Revenue 
from  the  colonies  resolved  upon  ;  the  Port  Duty  Act ;  Resolution  to  charge  stamp  duties — 
Deliberate  action  of  Grenville— Passage  of  the  Stamp  Act— How  the  colonies  acted  by 
way  of  protest — Feeling  in  America — The  New  York  Congress — Debates  in  Parliament 
and  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act— Joy  in  the  colonies— The  four  new  facts  which  constitute  the 
outcome  of  the  Stamp  Act  matter— The  Declaratory  Act— Character  of  Charles Townshend 
— His  sentiments  respecting  British  rule  in  America— The  Townshend  Acts— A  trick  of 
absolutism — England  defective  in  moral  qualifications  for  the  coming  struggle — Recep- 
tion of  the  Townshend  Acts  in  America — The  Massachusetts  Circular  Letter;  the  action  of 
the  ministry  thereon,  and  the  action  of  the  colonial  legislatures  :  troops  quartered  on 
Boston— The  feeling  of  resentment  displayed  in  I'arliament— Revival  of  the  law  to  trans- 
port offenders  for  trial— Action  of  Virginia— Botetourt's  appointment :  the  Virginia  Reso- 
lutions of  1769 — Attempts  of  the  ministry  to  throw  the  onus  on  the  colonies— Partial  repeal 
of  the  Townshend  Acts :  the  Tea  Act  remains— Government  of  the  colonies  by  Royal  In- 
structions, or  ukase  administration — The  subordmate  part  played  by  "  Parliamentary  ab- 
solutism "—Apathetic  reaction  in  the  colonies;  Boston  Massacre— The  order  to  pay  the 
colonial  judges  from  the  imperial  treasury  ;  the  Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence — 
The  "Gaspee"  Commission— The  Virginia  Legislative  Committee  of  Correspondence  the 
f  rst  effective  step  to  colonial  union.  .  .  ....    247-272 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    CONFLICT    WITH    ABSOLUTISM Contmuea. 

Embarrassment  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  plan  of  the  Government  to  relieve  it  at 
the  expense  of  the  colonies — The  sordid  way  in  which  England  looked  at  American 
affairs— The  tea  thrown  overboard  in  Boston  Harbor — Resentment  of  the  English— The 
Boston  Port  Bill — The  Massachusetts  Government  Bill  or  Regulating  Act— Another  cargo 
pitched  into  the  water — The  sad  state  of  affairs  due  to  the  attempt  to  set  up  a  paternal 
government— England  retrograding,  America  advancing:  what  the  English  people 
might  have  done— The  Revolution  of  1688  powerless  to  arouse  sympathy  in  the  English 
masses  with  the  Revolution  of  1776 — The  way  the  news  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  was  re- 
ceived in  America— Impending  physical  force  becomes  an  element  in  the  conflict— Gen- 
eral impulse  in  favor  of  a  colonial  Congress— Twelve  colonies  agree  to  send  delegates  ;  effect 
of  feeling  in  Virginia  on  the  rest  of  the  country— The  Congress  created  ;  its  character,  and 
relations  to  the  Enghsh  Parliament  and  to  the  colonies— The  First  Congress ;  two  parties — 
The  Suffolk  Resolutions— What  this  Congress  did— Chatham's  eulogium  upon  this  Congress 
sustained  by  the  judgment  of  time— The  course  pursued  by  Massachusetts— The  elections 
of  1774  sustain  the  ministry — Lord  Chatham's  fruitless  endeavor  to  have  the  troops  with- 
drawn from  Boston— His  Provisional  Bill  for  settling  the  troubles  in  America  ;  its  failure 
—Why  this  bill  would  not  have  been  acceptable  to  the  Americans— Plans  of  conciliation  : 
Lord  North's  plan— Edmund  Burke's  plan  ;  his  great  speech — Affair  of  Lexington  and 
Concord— Its  effect  on  the  colonists;  Boston  invested  by  the  Americans— Rejection  by 
Congress  of  Lord  North's  plan— Bunker  Hill— Last  Petition  to  the  King — An  army  raised 
and  Washmgton  appointed  commander-in-chief:  measures  to  obstruct  the  enemy — The 
Petition  rejected  and  Proclamation  of  Rebellion  made— Vigorous  policy  of  the  ministry — 
the  King's  Speech— Failure  of  the  Opposition— Action  of  Congress — The  Middle  Colonies 
conservative— Effect  of  Tom  Paine's  "•  Common  Sense  "  — Futile  opposition  of  the  Con- 
servatives to  revolution — Resolution  of  the  15th  of  May — Opposed  by  the  Conservatives  j 
their  decline — Congress  takes  steps  to  bring  forward  the  question  of  independence — Reso- 
lutions of  Richard  Henry  Lee— The  Great  Debate,  and  the  resolutions— The  Declaration 
of  Independence— The  War  for  Independence  and  triumph  of  local  self-government- 
Retrospect— Verification  of  the  Motive  and  Law  of  Development.    .  .  .    273-302 


PART    I. 

THE  ERA  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  ENGLAND. 

"  Cette  nation  at  me  rait  prodigieusement  sa  liberie,  parceque  cette 
liberty  serait  vraiej" 

Esprit  des  Lois,  liv.  xix,  chap,  xxvii. 


INTRODUCTION. 

"CV  «'  est  pas  la  fortune  qui  domine  le  monde.  *  *  *  II  y  a 
des  causes  g/n/rales,  soit  morales,  soil  physiques,  qui  agissent  dans 
chaque  monarchie,  V  dhoent^  la  maintiennent,  ou  la  pr/cipitent  j  tous 
les  accidents  sont  soumis  h  ces  causes  j  et  si  le  hasard  d*  une  bataille, 
c  est-a-dire  une  cause  partlculitre,  a  ruine  un  JEtat,  il  y  avail  une 
cause  g/ndrale  qui  faisait  que  cet  JStat  devait  pei'ir  par  une  seul'. 
bataille.  En  un  mot,  V  allure  principale  e?itraine  avec  elle  tous  les 
accidents  particuliers. ' ' 

Grandeur  et  Decadence  des  Romains,  chap,  xviii. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Introduction, 

THE  growth  of  the  English  colonies  in  America  was  due  to 
causes  peculiar  to  the  times.  The  wilderness  was  an  invit- 
ing one,  the  climate  was  favorable  to  race  development,  society 
would  have  no  traditionary  limits  set  upon  its  expansion,  and  men's 
needs  were  pressing.  Yet,  though  the  virgin  stood  before  their 
eyes,  whole  generations  of  Northmen  were  born,  lived  out  their  days 
and  passed  away,  without  heeding  the  gentle  bidding  which  every 
western  gale  bore  across  the  waters.     The  bridegroom  tarried. 

All  at  once,  however,  Europe  stirred,  and  the  North  Atlantic 
was  dotted  with  sails  moving  westward.  Why  this  restlessness  ; 
why  this  migration  ;  why  happened  it  then  instead  of  before  ; 
why  did  it  occur  at  all  ?  The  answer  is  short  and  emphatic.  So 
long  as  men  were  satisfied  with  their  condition,  there  was  no 
reason  for  their  moving.  But,  when  a  sudden  and  marvellous 
expansion  of  the  human  intellect  occurred  ;  Avhen,  under  that 
expansion,  old  bonds  were  broken  and  the  ancient  systems  were 
left  inadequate  to  supply  the  new  demands  of  society ;  when 
these  systems  failed  to  readily  adapt  themselves  to  the  changed 
order  of  things,  then  life  fast  became  intolerable,  and  men  who 
were  determined  upon  having  something  better,  were  forced  to 
seek  elsewhere  what  they  could  not  find  at  home.  Thus  arose 
something  which  compelled  movement,  and  as  society  could  only 
move  westward,  hence  began  the  great  Anglican  migration  which 
other  impulses  from  time  to  time  sustained. 

The  United  States  of  America,  then,  are  results  of  that  mighty 
force,  which,  bounding  into  existence  through  the  throes  of  the 
Reformation,  still  continues  its  triumphant  march.    The  disintegra- 

5 


:[\  :  \/P'^¥^^'^^Pj^'^^)i^  \.IBERTY. 


tion  of  ancient  manners,  ancient  notions,  and  ancient  principles, 
consequent  upon  the  upheaval  of  the  ancient  structure,  continued 
for  many  generations,  until  at  last  it  embraced  every  element  of  the 
old  European  civilization.  When  this  disintegration  was  ended, 
however,  a  process  just  the  contrary  set  in,  and  under  the  cohesive 
forces  of  society  the  different  fragments  crystallized  into  new 
forms  and  into  new  organizations.  Thus  the  course  of  the  great 
movement  may  be  distinguished  by  two  periods  :  one  of  destruc- 
tion, and  the  other  of  construction.  In  the  latter  the  English- 
speaking  race  is  living  to-da)^,  but  the  former  continued  in  Eng- 
land until  1688,  or  less  than  two  centuries  ago,  while  in  America 
it  was  not  completely  at  an  end  until  1776,  or  about  one  century 
ago. 

In  the  British  Isles  the  first  great  step  of  the  destructive  era  ter- 
minated in  the  accomplishment  of  the  Reformation  proper,  when 
the  new  conditions  of  religious  life  were  fixed  and  settled.  Then 
it  ended ;  but  after  this  period  of  activity,  and  before  the  more 
amazing  one  that  followed,  there  occurred  what  might  be  termed 
an  interval  of  volcanic  repose.  Flames  did  not  shoot  toward  the 
zenith,  streams  of  fire  did  not  lay  waste  the  vineyards,  nor  were 
the  temples  overthrown.  All  this  was  indeed  to  come  ;  but  for  the 
present,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  to  the  ac- 
cession of  Charles  the  First,  there  was,  to  outward  appearance, 
tranquillity.  Men  went  on  cutting  and  grafting  upon  the  slopes, 
though  at  times  a  tremor  ran  through  the  ground,  and  though 
the  ear,  in  spite  of  itself,  would  turn  to  catch  the  smothered  mut- 
tering that  betokened  a  fast-brimming  crater.  This  interval  was 
characterized  by  the  transition  of  the  lately  awakened  force  from 
purely  religious  subjects  to  those  that  were  purely  intellectual ;  and 
though  it  was  but  a  period  of  transition  from  one  part  of  the  de- 
structive era  to  another,  we  behold  the  constructive  forces  of 
society  bursting  forth  in  every  direction  ;  just  as  on  the  sides  of 
Vesuvius  we  see  vegetation  pushing  its  blades  through  the  scarcely 
cooled  lava.  Nevertheless,  the  time  is  not  yet  come  for  the  full 
action  of  these  forces ;  old  systems,  which  others  must  replace, 
still  survive,  and  until  they  are  in  ruins,  the  era  of  construction 
cannot  be  said  to  have  set  in. 

Accordingly,  the  next  stage  is  destructive,  and,  as  it  proves,  is 
the  most  destructive  of  all.     The  constructive  forces  cease  from 


THE   GREAT  MOVEMENT.  7 

acting  altogether,  and  the  destructive  are  seen  in  full  possession 
of  the  field.  This  embraces  the  short  period  between  the  acces- 
sion of  Charles  the  First  and  the  investiture  of  the  Protector,  and 
in  the  annals  of  the  great  Revolution  it  may  be  characterized  as 
that  in  which  Free  Inquiry  advanced  in  religious  mattevs  still 
further  toward  the  substitution  of  reason  for  credulity,  and  in 
which,  passing  to  secular  subjects,  it  attacked  the  existing  politi- 
cal structure  of  society  and  asserted  the  supremacy  of  p^irsonal 
liberty  over  absolutism.  The  struggle  between  these  forces  was 
one  which,  even  yet,  men  shudder  at  the  thought  of.  The  forces 
of  society  acted  only  in  violence,  and  in  violence  which  sent  Eng- 
land reeling  to  the  ground.  When  the  conflict  was  ended,  and 
men  paused  to  take  breath  and  look  about  them,  marvellous  were 
the  changes  wrought.  In  religion,  freedom  of  conscience  held 
the  ground,  and  intolerance,  or  the  doctrine  that  the  civil  power 
was  at  the  service  of  the  ecclesiastical  in  prescribing  faith,  in 
regulating  doctrine,  and  in  extirpating  heresy,  had  sheathed  its 
sword,  or,  at  best,  was  standing  on  a  weak  defence.  Its  voice 
no  longer  thundered  its  decrees,  but  in  shrill  treble  quavered  its 
apologies.  In  politics,  though  a  dictator  "protected"  the  land, 
that  dictator  was  an  uncrowned  and  unanointed  one,  and  in 
every  thing  he  said  or  did,  was  careful  to  ascribe  his  omnipotence 
to  the  people  only  as  the  sole  source  of  power. 

Absolutism,  the  world  over,  has  never  recovered  from  the  shock 
then  given  it  ;  English  absolutism  from  that  day  has  borne  the 
mark  of  the  beast.  In  commercial  matters,  the  old  system  of 
monopoly  was  overthrown,  though  the  monstrous  principle  still 
held  its  own  ;  and  a  new  system  took  its  place,  in  which  a  whole 
people  were  substituted  as  monopolists  instead  of  courtiers  and 
guilds.  Though  monopoly  itself,  as  we  shall  see,  was  as  strong  as 
ever,  its  enjoyment  was  shared  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  England, 
and  in  this  change,  as  in  every  other  that  had  occurred,  one  in- 
variable fact  presents  itself — the  emphatic  assertion  of  individu- 
ality in  matters  pertaining  to  the  common  weal.  In  short,  con- 
trol of  the  social  forces  was  more  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
enjoyment  of  franchises  and  liberties  was  much  more  general,  and 
religion  had  become  a  thing  of  the  individual  and  not  of  the  state. 

The  Protector,  Oliver  Cromwell,  was,  to  all  appearance,  the 
veriest  of  dictators,  and  absolutism  seemed  to  be  enthroned  in 


8  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

his  person :  but  such  were  really  not  the  facts.  That  wonderful 
man  saw  clearly  that  the  absolutism  of  the  past  was  over,  and 
that  the  absolutism  of  which  he  was  the  figure  was  a  make-shift ; 
and,  with  singular  self-control,  he  set  to  work  to  secure  to  Eng- 
land the  advances  toward  liberty  it  had  gained  from  the  conflict 
just  ended.  While  the  strife  was  going  on,  he  had  kept  just  ahead 
of  events,  with  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  the  day  following  hard 
after  him  ;  but  when,  exhausted  by  its  efforts,  revolution  paused, 
Cromwell,  who  never  paused,  distanced  it,  and  the  result  was, 
that,  unsustained  by  public  opinion,  death  caught  him  with  his 
work  unfinished.  Nevertheless,  the  people,  whose  hesitating 
steps  still  carried  them  forward,  did  reach  his  ground  in  course  of 
time,  and  the  feeble  absolutism  of  the  Restoration  found  itself 
face  to  face  with  an  England  far  more  united  against  it  than  ever 
that  which  confronted  Charles  I.  had  been.  Indeed,  such  was  now 
the  pervading  sense  of  freedom,  and  such  the  universal  apprecia- 
tion of  personal  rights,  that  when  absolutism,  under  James  II., 
arrayed  itself  against  liberty  for  its  last  struggle,  there  was  no 
conflict  worthy  of  the  name.  It  threw  down  the  gauntlet  only  to 
retire  from  the  lists,  and  it  fled  panic-struck  from  the  presence  of 
the  warrior  it  had  itself  called  into  the  field.  Thus  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1688  was  almost  a  bloodless  revolution  ;  and  personal 
freedom  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  take  possession  of  abandoned 
ground,  and  to  proclaim  a  constitution  which  none  have  disputed 
from  that  day  to  this.  Since  then  the  era  of  construction  and 
enjoyment  has  been  uninterrupted  in  England,  and  the  last  vio- 
lent effort  of  the  great  movement  which  had  been  initiated  by  the 
Reformation  may  be  said  to  have  there  terminated  in  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1688.     The  Middle  Ages  were  ended. 

This  whole  movement,  from  beginning  to  end,  has  been  unfor- 
tunate in  its  names.  Indeed,  unless  we  call  it  "  The  Great  Move- 
ment "  or  "  The  Great  Revolution,"  it  is  nameless  :  for  the  term 
"  The  Reformation  "  applies  only  to  a  part,  and  the  term  "  Puri- 
tanism," which  never  expressed  but  a  part  of  a  part,  and  which  at 
most  is  the  name  of  a  quality  or  characteristic  only,  is  actually 
misleading.  Used  at  first  to  designate  anti-formalism  in  religious 
matters,  and,  afterward,  what  would  be  called  to-day  "  reform  " 
in  politics,  it  has  been  extended  so  as  to  embrace  the  whole  ex- 
pansion  which   resulted  in   substituting  freedom   of   conscience 


PURITANISM.  9 

for  credulity,  freedom  of  trade  for  monopoly,  and  constitutional 
freedom  for  absolutism.  This  distinction  it  does  not  deserve  ; 
for  Puritanism,  as  a  political  force,  did  not  make  its  appearance 
until  long  after  the  Reformation,  and  it  ended  with  the  death  of 
Cromwell.  It  was  during  these  two  periods  that  the  English 
people  did  the  most  of  the  task  that  had  been  set  them  to  do,  and 
the  rest  of  the  work,  which  was  accomplished  in  1688,  was  simply 
that  of  garnering  the  crop.  Nevertheless,  the  final  stage  is  as  dis- 
tinct as  either  of  those  which  precede  it,  and  to  complete  the  desig- 
nation of  the  movement  which  so  changed  the  character  of  the 
English  and  wrought  such  great  good,  we  must  add  to  its  nomen- 
clature the  name  of  the  Revolution  of  1688. 

The  American  colonies  owed  so  much  to  the  Great  Movement, 
that  it  may  be  well,  once  for  all,  and  at  this  point,  to  set  forth  the 
nature  of  its  different  phases.  We  know  what  the  Reformation 
was,  and  what  it  did  for  all  people — it  changed  the  subjects  of 
mental  activity,  by  substituting,  as  the  impelling  motive,  free  in- 
quiry for  credulity.  But  what  was  Puritanism,  and  what  did  it 
do  for  England  ? 

It  was  a  reformation  of  the  Reformation  ;  and  it  left  an  indeli- 
ble mark  upon  English  character.  Modern  England  dates  from 
its  expiration,  and  with  it  ended  a  heroic  age.  Politically,  it  was 
a  revolt  of  the  Middle  Class  ;  intellectually  and  spiritually,  it  was 
a  violent,  uncontrollable  expansion  of  the  mind  and  soul ;  his- 
torically, it  was  the  latest  popular  development  of  Free  Inquiry  in 
the  British  Isles.  Taking  it  altogether,  it  was  a  convulsive  effort 
toward  freedom.  The  Middle  Class  wanted  representation  in  the 
government ;  they  would  no  longer  be  left  out  of  every  thing  but 
the  revenue  acts  and  the  press-gang.  The  Intellectual  Class,  whose 
field  had  been  broadened  by  Free  Inquiry,  would  no  longer  stay 
pent  up  within  the  schools  ;  and  the  Religious  Class,  stimulated  by 
the  sight  of  an  open  Bible,  and  frantic  from  the  stings  of  intoler- 
ance, insisted  upon  absolute  freedom  of  conscience.  All  three 
got  what  they  wanted.  After  the  storm  was  over,  England  appa- 
rently settled  down  into  what  she  had  been  ;  but  only  in  appear- 
ance. The  divisions  of  society  remained  the  same,  the  church 
resumed  her  services,  parliament  betook  itself  to  the  old  business 
of  granting  royal  supplies,  and  the  king  went  out  hawking  as 
usual.     But  there  was  a  change  ;  the  ancient  life  was  gone,  the 


10  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

new  life  had  leavened  the  lump,  and  things  were  not  what  they 
had  been.  The  old  liberties  looked  more  vigorous  than  ever,  the 
new  ones  already  seemed  as  enduring,  and  together  they  resisted 
with  easy  indifference  the  dangers  that  threatened  them  from  the 
frivolity,  the  bigotry,  and  the  obstinacy  of  kings,  and  those  that 
would  assault  them  from  the  tyranny  of  mobs.  Had  Puritanism 
done  nothing  else  than  develop  manly  self-respect,  the  sense  of 
individuality,  and  the  consciousness  of  a  power  which  could  and 
would  compel  a  reverent  regard  for  personal  rights,  it  had  de- 
served well  of  the  people.  Had  it  limited  its  efforts  solely  to  as- 
suring the  old  liberties,  to  advancing  the  new,  and  to  establishing 
both,  it  had  deserved  well  of  civilization.  It  did  these  things, 
and,  in  spite  of  its  violence  and  cruelty,  and  of  all  its  manifold 
offences,  it  deserves  and  has  the  good  word  of  mankind.  It 
started  England  upon  the  career  which  she  has  run  as  head  of  the 
human  family  ;  upon  her  career  of  conquest  ;  not  her  conquest  of 
brute  force,  but  her  conquest  of  civilization,  which  has  subdued 
continents  to  the  plough,  and  which  has  rooted  her  principles  of 
liberty  as  sturdily  in  the  islands  of  far-off  seas  as  ever  they  were 
rooted  in  the  soil  of  Runnymede.  It  was  much  to  demonstrate, 
if  but  for  a  single  day,  that  conscience  could  be  free — and  this  it 
did  :  it  was  much  to  teach  rulers  that  the  possession  of  power  is  a 
trust  for  the  benefit  of  society— and  this  it  did  :  it  was  much  to 
return  a  parliament  which  really  represented  the  people — and  this 
it  did  :  it  was  much  to  propose  reforms  which  it  is  still  the  en- 
deavor of  England  to  effect — and  this  it  did  :  it  was  more,  far 
more,  to  actually  accomplish  them,  though  but  for  a  parliament's 
sitting — and  this  it  did. 

It  may  be  urged  against  Puritanism,  that  its  greatest  services  to 
freedom  were  given  during  the  riot  of  that  worst  of  afflictions,  a 
people  run  mad,  and  that  it  was  in  the  days  of  its  fanaticism  that 
liberty  reaped  its  richest  gains.  But  that  some  of  these  services 
were  involuntary  by  no  means  deprives  Puritanism  of  the  credit 
due  her  for  what  she  did  freely  and  from  good-will.  *  The  gains 
of  liberty,  too,  before  and  since  that  time,  have  been  due  as  often 
to  the  indolence,  the  vices,  and  the  necessities  of  rulers,  to  the 
brutality  of  the  rabble,  to  the  passions  and  blunders  of  citizens, 
and  to  the  mere  accretions  of  time,  as  to  the  merits  and  virtues  of 
mankind.     All  these  things  have  proved  quite  as  efficient  for  her 


SERVICES  OF  PURITANISM   TO  FREEDOM.  II 

'  ends  as  patriots  and  heroes.  Does  a  prince  become  impecunious  ? 
Riches  are  his,  if  she  is  only  given  another  foothold.  Does  a  mob 
break  in  the  doors  of  a  Parliament  House  ?  Immunity  from 
punishment  is  accorded,  if  the  right  of  free  speech — speech  as 
secure  from  a  mob  as  from  a  ruler — is  guaranteed  for  the  future. 
Does  the  legislature  encroach  on  the  administration  or  the  ad- 
ministration on  the  legislature  ?  Swarms  of  precedents,  whose 
presence  is  justified  simply  because  they  have  existed  time  out  of 
mind,  straightway  confront  the  outrage  and  turn  it  to  liberty's  ac- 
count. All  this  only  goes  to  show  that  this  ever-watchful  spirit 
does  not  disdain  to  make  use  of  the  stones  which  the  builders 
reject.  She  may  not  be  nice  in  her  agents,  but  she  uses  them  to 
good  ends  and  with  good  effect.  So  with  Puritanism  :  it  made 
use  of  the  tools  it  had,  not  what  it  would  have.  Conservative 
England  may  have  done  more  to  hedge  old  liberties  with  safe- 
guards ;  but  Puritanism  is  good,  and  is  to  be  honored  for  this, 
that  it  produced  more  new  liberties  which  have  lived,  and  it  pro- 
posed, and,  what  is  better,  set  the  example  of  more  reforms 
which  have  lasted,  than  ever  conservatism  did.  It  gave,  too,  the 
two  great  parties  necessary  to  every  free  government,  and  of  these 
one  has  made  it  its  duty  to  preserve  what  the  other  originates. 
Beneath  the  froth  and  scum  the  waters  of  life  still  ran  in  pure  and 
steady  current.  Puritanism  was  indeed  fanatical,  but  it  used  its 
fanaticism  in  the  end,  to  the  advancement  of  the  human  race  and 
the  greater  glory  of  God. 

What,  then,  as  the  next  inquiry,  was  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
and  what  did  it  do  for  the  people  of  England  ? 

The  nerveless  rule  of  Cromwell's  successor  disclosed  how 
abruptly  the  work  of  reconstruction  had  been  interrupted  by  the 
Protector's  death,  and  laid  bare  the  necessity  of  its  continuance. 
The  country  was  exhausted  by  convulsion  ;  reaction  naturally  fol- 
lowed, and  the  conservatism  of  the  race  having  nothing  to  with- 
stand it,  the  result  was,  that  the  king  had  his  own  again.  So 
practical  a  people  as  the  English,  had  not,  however,  gone  through 
tribulation  for  nothing,  and  when  absolutism  dropped  its  mask,  the 
temper  which  had  beheaded  one  king  was  not  disposed  to  palter 
with  another.  The  past  was  scrutinized  after  reflection  had  cooled 
the  judgment,  and  the  discrimination  between  the  good  and  bad  it 


12  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

disclosed  was  made  with  just  severity.  Nothing  could  be  more 
timely  for  popular  rights,  than  that  royal  absolutism  should  choose 
for  its  attempts  a  moment  when  the  recollection  of  what  they  had 
done  was  still  fresh  enough  to  show  the  people  what  they  could 
do,  and  when  the  resolution  to  maintain  their  rights  was  made  in- 
flexible by  the  lately  acquired  sense  of  having  earned  them.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  if  by  instinct,  the  whole  mass  set  to  work  to  secure 
what  had  been  gained.  The  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  wrung  from 
Charles,  and,  in  fact,  during  no  period  of  English  history  were  so 
many  rights  secured  as  there  were  under  the  reigns  of  that  mon- 
arch and  his  brother,  two  of  the  most  inveterate  absolutists  that  ever 
sat  upon  the  throne.  The  reason  was,  that  though  these  rights  were 
not  embodied  in  a  constitution,  they  were  alive  in  the  people,  who 
were  bent  upon  seeing  them  recognized  elements  of  the  law  of  the 
land  ;  and  so  strong  was  this  determination,  that  when,  at  last,  the 
king  obstructed  the  work,  he  was  pushed  aside,  and  another  was 
called  in  who  took  his  place  upon  the  express  condition,  that, 
henceforth,  the  crown  should  act  under  the  limitations  imposed  by 
the  constitution.  Thus  the  Restoration  bestowed  liberties,  and  the 
Revolution  of  1688  secured  them.  It  did  more  :  it  gave  the  Eng- 
lish the  solid  assurance,  that  all  their  liberties,  old  and  new,  were 
of  equal  weight  before  the  constitution,  and  were  alike  constituent 
elements  of  their  social  organization.  No  matter  when  this  liberty 
or  that  had  risen  to  the  surface,  all  were  now  made  living  ele- 
ments of  the  body  politic,  and  when  the  Declaration  of  Rights  was 
put  forth,  and  Majesty  did  it  reverence,  personal  freedom  was  set 
upon  immovable  foundations. 

Such  were  the  three  periods  of  the  Great  Revolution,  of  which 
the  first  two  may  be  styled  emphatically  the  Eras  of  Effort,  and 
such  were  what  they  accomplished.  In  surveying  this  mighty 
movement  from  beginning  to  end,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with 
this  fact,  that,  though  history  repeats  itself,  the  law  of  a  people's 
development  does  not  act,  at  any  time  or  in  any  place,  with  the 
uniformity  of  those  physical  laws  whose  action  can  be  measured 
and  determined  mathematically.  The  retrogression  of  the  intel- 
lect is  indicated  by  a  regular  and  gradual  relinquishment  of  its 
ground  ;  but  its  advance  is  marked  by  successive  steps  of  unequal 
length,  taken  after  unequal  pauses  ;  and  its  expansion  is  charac- 
terized by  efforts  of  increasing  vehemence.     In  its  condition  of 


EFFECTS  OF  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION  ON  THE  COLONIES.    1 3 

effort,  its  action  is  irregular  and  spasmodic  ;  it  advances,  rests, 
takes  breath,  and  once  more  rushes  onward.  In  all  progress  of 
the  mind,  one  thing  strikes  the  observer  with  a  force  secondary 
only  to  its  achievements — its  intermittent  periods  of  repose,  when, 
laying  aside  its  aggressive  character  and  patiently  rebuilding  the 
demolished  fabric  in  another  form,  it  gains  a  new  point  of  de- 
parture for  a  still  further  advance.  As  each  of  these  stages  comes 
to  an  end  and  takes  its  place  in  the  recorded  past,  it  becomes  a 
known  and  written  chapter  in  the  history  of  human  development. 

The  spectacle  of  such  results  as  the  Revolution  of  1688  dis- 
played, had  a  great  effect  upon  the  English  colonies  in  America  ; 
but  there  were  no  physical  effects  (for  the  conflict  did  not  reach 
these  shores),  except  the  settlement  of  certain  portions  of  Ameri- 
can territory,  notably  New  England  and  Pennsylvania,  which  was  a 
direct  result  of  the  intellectual  and  religious  disturbance  of  the 
times.  But,  apart  from  this,  the  importance  of  which  can  scarcely 
be  overestimated,  the  colonies,  when  they  had  come  to  maturity, 
were  profoundly  impressed  by  the  historical  example  presented  : 
it  concentrated  their  regards  more  steadfastly  upon  their  char- 
tered liberties,  which  were  great,  and  upon  those  which  time  and 
their  situation  had  brought  to  hand,  which  were  greater  ;  it  popu- 
larized among  them  the  knowledge  of  constitutional  government  ; 
it  excited  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  freedom  they  enjoyed,  and 
it  inflamed  their  resolution  to  maintain  its  integrity.  Such  were 
the  moral  effects  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  upon  all  the  colonies 
in  the  course  of  time,  and  such  was  its  generating  influence  upon 
the  northern  part  of  the  British  territory  in  America.  Further 
than  that,  however,  it  did  not  go. 

The  Revolution  of  1688  did  not  establish  in  America  the  con- 
stitutional government  it  had  secured  to  England.  What  freedom 
existed,  existed  by  the  force  of  race  instinct,  of  franchises  ex- 
pressed in  charters,  or  by  the  force  of  time  and  custom.  The  colo- 
nies, it  is  true,  had  already  been  in  the  enjoyment  of  some  of  the  lib- 
erties the  English  did  not  secure  to  themselves  until  then  ;  but  these 
had  been  quietly  appropriated  from  time  to  time,  or  had  grown  up 
of  themselves,  thanks  to  the  inducements  to  colonization  which  had 
to  be  offered  in  the  shape  of  franchises,  to  the  distance  which  ren- 
dered interference  impracticable,  to  the  disti  actions  of  the  gov- 


14  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

ernment  by  civil  wars  and  discord,  to  the  indifference  of  kings 
and  cabinets,  to  the  necessity  of  fostering  good-will  which  the 
neighborhood  of  an  aggressive  rival  created,  and,  above  all,  to 
their  character  of  mere  commercial  dependencies.  What  liberty 
they  had,  then,  was  theirs  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  and  not 
by  the  force  of  the  English  constitution  ;  it  was  liberty,  but  the 
liberty  only  of  England  before  the  Bill  of  Rights.  They  could 
not,  therefore,  be  said  to  be  in  the  constitutional  enjoyment  of 
popular  representation,  for  their  legislatures  could  be  convened 
only  by  the  breath  of  a  king,  by  the  same  breath  could  they  be 
dissolved,  and  their  acts  were  subject  to  the  scrutiny  of  a  Board 
commissioned  during  the  pleasure  of  the  sovereign  ;  nor  could 
justice  be  considered  constitutionally  administered,  for  the  judges 
were  not  independent  of  the  crown.  As  the  laws  of  England  were 
made  for  that  country  only,  and  therefore  were  confined  in  their 
action  to  the  British  Isles,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  of  no  force 
in  the  colonies.  Thus,  in  three  essential  elements  of  free  govern- 
ment, viz.:  popular  representation,  administration  of  justice,  and 
inviolability  of  the  person,  the  colonies  lacked  the  safeguards  of 
either  a  constitution  or  the  law.  They  practically  enjoyed  these 
rights,  it  is  true,  but  the  enjoyment  was  without  any  such  guar- 
anty of  continuance  as  Anglican  liberty  now  insists  upon  and 
obtains  the  world  over. 

In  one  thing,  however,  their  condition  was  superior  to  that  of 
their  fellow-subjects  at  home  :  they  were  not  weighed  down  by 
an  Established  Church,  and,  though  toleration  as  a  principle  was 
not  accepted,  save  in  Pennsylvania  and  Rhode  Island,  toleration  as 
a  fact  existed  from  the  absence  of  any  power  which  could  pre- 
scribe faith  or  extirpate  heresy.  Moreover,  their  circumstances 
were  not  conducive  to  the  division  of  society  as  it  existed  in  Eu- 
rope, and  the  expansion  of  social  life  was  therefore  unrestrained. 
These  two  conditions  were  extremely  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
liberty,  and  they  account  for  the  exercise  of  many  rights  which 
came  to  the  surface  when  a  state  of  society  existed  which  imposed 
no  limitations  upon  their  growth  but  those  of  nature.  But  they 
were  the  results  of  natural  law,  regulated  by  municipal  law; 
they  were  not  guaranteed  by  any  constitution  of  the  colonies,  nor 
were  they  recognized  by  the  constitution  of  England. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Revolution  of  i68S,  in  one  way,  worked 


COLONIAL  POLICY  OF  WILLIAM  III  1$ 

positive  ill  to  the  colonies  :  it  permitted  the  forces  of  absolutism 
to  concentrate  upon  the  weaker  portions  of  the  empire.  The 
downfall  of  the  Stuarts  was  the  downfall  of  personal  government 
in  England,  but  not  in  America,  and  this  country  was  forthwith 
regarded  as  the  one  where  British  absolutism  had  its  last  chance 
of  success,  and  whither  it  must  betake  itself  if  it  would  regain 
what  had  been  lost  at  home. 

The  Americans  owe  no  thanks  to  William  the  Third.  What- 
ever he  may  be  to  England,  to  America  he  is  the  embodiment  of 
Stuart  absolutism.  In  colonial  administration  he  simply  took  up 
the  thread  those  arbitrary  rulers  had  dropped,  and,  though  king 
by  the  grace  of  a  constitution,  he  went  right  on  from  where 
they  had  left  off.  He  refused  the  colonies  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
he  withheld  from  them  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus^  and  what  he 
acknowledged  as  the  personal  rights  of  Englishmen  he  denied  to 
be  the  personal  rights  of  Americans.  During  his  reign  the  Acts 
of  Trade  multiplied,  not  in  the  interest  of  commerce  but  of  arbi- 
trary power,  and,  in  a  word,  though  compelled  to  play  the  part  of 
liberator  in  England,  he  maintained,  as  covertly  as  he  could,  that 
of  absolutist  in  the  colonies.  The  administration  of  their  affairs 
was  taken  from  the  Privy  Council  and  was  placed  in  a  Board  of 
Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  which,  established  in  the  time  of 
Charles  the  Second,  was  now  revived  and  invigorated  with  the 
energy  that  characterized  the  reign  of  the  Deliverer.*  The  osten- 
sible purpose  of  this  Board  was  the  care  of  provinces,  whose 
wealth  and  importance  demanded  an  administration  exclusively 
devoted  to  them  ;  but  its  constitution  was  such  that  it  could  be 
readily  used  by  the  crown  for  direct  interference  in  the  internal; 
affairs  of  the  colonies.  Happily,  colonial  liberty  was  favored  by 
the  existing  French  occupation  of  the  country  beyond  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Alleghenies.  So  long  as  the  British  possessions 
were  threatened  from  that  quarter,  the  government  felt  itself  un- 
der the  necessity  of  cultivating  the  good-will  of  the  colonies,  and, 
to  effect  this,  any  thing  like  intrusion  into  their  private  affairs  was 
discountenanced.  Thus  the  dependencies  were  left  to  themselves 
to  work  out  their  political  welfare,  and  when  the  time  came  for 
absolutism  to  show  its  hand,  and  to  effect  its  bidding  by  means  of 
the  Board   of  Lords  of  Trade   and  Plantations,  it  was   too  late  : 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


1 6  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  colonies  were  by  that  time  strong  enough  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves, and  to  retain,  in  spite  of  the  throne,  the  self-government 
that  had  become  as  dear  to  them  as  it  was  to  the  people  of  Eng- 
land. 

During  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  the  early  Hanoverians,  the  dread 
of  civil  commotion  which  might  disturb  the  placidity  of  the  pal- 
ace, or  endanger  the  hold  of  a  ministry  upon  office,  discounte- 
nanced any  encroachment  on  popular  rights  at  home,  while, 
abroad,  the  menacing  presence  of  the  French  on  the  Lakes  and  the 
Mississippi  constrained  the  government,  as  has  been  said,  to  the 
cultivation  in  the  colonies  of  a  spirit  of  cordiality  and  affection. 
There  existed  at  this  time  between  the  government  and  the  peo- 
ple what  politicians  style  an  era  of  good  feeling,  and  it  was  during 
this  period  that  material  prosperity  and  enjoyment  of  personal 
freedom  attained  their  height  in  America.  Although  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century  is  stained  by  the  scandalous  corruption 
which  rendered  the  bribes  of  Walpole  possible,  the  people  every- 
where were  left  to  themselves.  They  were  injured,  not  by  assault, 
but  by  having  their  defences  taken  away  :  for  this  corruption, 
with  its  rotten  boroughs  and  sinecures,  had  the  effect  of  diminish- 
ing the  representative  character  of  Parliament.  That  branch 
of  government  deserted  the  people,  and,  obedient  to  a  law  of 
political  forces,  the  further  it  receded  from  the  commons  the 
nearer  it  approached  the  throne.  With  this  dangerous  symptom 
appeared  another  :  the  sense  of  security  had  persuaded  the  Eng- 
lish that  their  rulers  did  not  need  watching  ;  their  ancient  dread 
of  the  prerogative,  consequently,  became  torpid,  and,  forgetting 
that  arbitrary  power  never  so  much  as  slumbers,  they  suffered 
themselves  to  sleep.  This  lethargy,  and  the  absence  of  defenders, 
invited  attack,  and,  accordingly,  a  different  order  of  things  than 
any  warranted  by  the  constitution,  raised  its  head  and  sought  to 
gain  a  footing  upon  the  accession  of  George  the  Third.  It  had 
not  long  to  wait.  The  necessities  of  the  government,  which  had 
been  exhausted  by  a  war  that  had  embraced  the  globe  in  its  strug- 
gles, supplied  a  pretext,  and  a  course  of  action  was  pursued  which 
was  destined  to  end  in  the  most  remarkable  attempt  of  arbitrary 
power  to  prevent  the  expansion  of  constitutional  government 
known  to  English-speaking  people  since  the  times  of  Strafford.  In 
the  end  it  proved  futile,  and  so  signal  was  its  failure,  that  the  won- 


REVIVAL   OF  ABSOLUTISM.  1 7 

der  is  that  it  could  ever  be  contemplated.  But  the  scheme  was  a 
cunning  one,  and,  at  the  time,  had  every  promise  of  success; 
for,  whatever  injury  ensued  would  seem  the  unavoidable  result  of 
a  rightful  performance  of  a  function  of  government,  while  resist- 
ance, if  any  there  were,  would  call  forth  the  whole  power  of  an  empire 
whose  integrity  that  resistance  would  threaten.  Thus  those  who 
so  lately  had  bound  arbitrary  power  with  fetters  of  brass,  would  be 
forced  to  do  its  work,  and  thus  the  hand  which  was  mining  the  cita- 
del would  distract  the  attention  of  the  garrison  by  inciting  a  re- 
volt of  the  outposts. 

A  deep-rooted  feeling,  which  was  general,  also  lent  its  support 
to  the  scheme.  Ever  since  England  possessed  dependencies, 
there  had  always  been  manifested  toward  the  dependent  a  sense 
of  superiority  on  the  part  of  the  home  citizens  ;  and,  from  time 
immemorial,  the  sentiment  had  prevailed,  that,  for  the  protection 
accorded  by  their  government  and  for  the  tranquillity  not  paid 
for  by  the  colonists,  the  latter  should  evince  a  due  sense  of 
subordination,  and  should  not  affect  to  be  upon  the  same  level 
with  their  protectors.  This  feeling,  akin  to  that  with  which  every 
people  regard  foreigners,  was  not  original  with  the  English,  as  the 
marks  left  by  it  long  before  upon  the  chronicles  of  other  people 
abundantly  testify  :  but,  not  to  go  back  to  the  troubles  which 
arose  on  this  score  between  Rome  and  her  provinces,  it  is  enough 
to  recall  its  sanguinary  records  in  the  revolts  which,  from  time  to 
time,  stain  the  history  of  the  relations  that  existed  between 
Spain  and  her  foreign  possessions.  In  these,  indeed,  the  feeling 
toward  dependencies  which  usually  had  been  acquired  by  con- 
quest, and  whose  inhabitants  were  of  a  different  blood  and  a  dif- 
ferent tongue  from  their  conquerors,  manifested  a  spirit  of 
oppression  in  keeping  with  the  despotic  character  of  governments, 
which,  far  from  considering  their  dependents  exempt  from  bur- 
dens for  which  they  were  not  responsible,  regarded  them  as 
objects  of  imperial  rapacity  and  plunder.  Of  such  spirit  and 
conduct  toward  their  colonies,  however,  it  need  not  be  said  that 
the  freedom-loving  Britons  were  not  guilty — the  less  so,  as  the 
inhabitants  of  these  distant  countries  were  not  a  conquered 
people,  but  were  the  conquerers, .  and,  being  of  the  same  race, 
were  as  English  as  themselves.  Nevertheless,  this  sentiment, 
always  strong  enough   to  make  itself  felt,  was,  moreover,  suffi- 


1 8  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

ciently  energetic  to  play  a  part  in  politics,  and  thus  it  became  an 
ally  worthy  the  effort  of  short-sighted  or  unscrupulous  ministers. 

Nothing  was  easier  in  those  days  of  closed  parliaments  and 
sluggish  circulation  of  news,  than  to  delude  the  populace  and 
arouse  their  passions  ;  and  no  means  were  more  effective  to  carry 
a  measure  than  wounded  pride  and  insular  prejudice.  A  word 
was  sufficient — that  mere  colonial  dependencies,  fostered  for  the 
benefit  of  home  trade,  actually  interpreted  their  charters  as  erect- 
ing them  into  dominions ;  that  subordinates  beyond  the  sea 
claimed  for  their  puny  legislatures  the  independence  and  the 
powers  of  Parliament  ;  and  that  those  who  slept  under  the  shield 
of  Great  Britain  insisted  upon  doing  so,  exempt  from  paying  for 
their  repose  :  these,  and  other  like  things,  struck  the  vulgar  mind 
as  impudent  in  the  extreme,  and  aroused  in  a  moment  the  arro- 
gance which  set  its  face  like  flint  against  any  thing  that  looked 
like  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  inferiors  to  put  themselves  upon  an 
equality  with  their  masters.  The  House  of  Lords,  thronged  with 
creations  whose  patents  were  still  too  fresh  to  be  worm-eaten, 
naturally  sided  with  the  throne  ;  and  the  House  of  Commons, 
which,  though  Walpole  and  Newcastle  had  passed  away,  still 
knew  too  well  its  master's  crib,  hurried  off  in  the  same  direction. 
Thus  arbitrary  power,  when  it  precipitated  upon  the  country  the 
same  conflict  with  freedom  which  England  had  terminated  so  glori- 
ously less  than  a  century  before,  had  upon  its  side  not  only  public 
opinion,  but  the  only  means  public  opinion  had  to  express  itself, 
save  the  press  ;  and  this  it  endeavored  to  silence  before  the  last 
argument  of  kings  had  been  reached.  Never  was  a  more  singular 
spectacle  beheld  than  that  of  a  people  who  had  been  the  only 
ones  to  establish  constitutional  government,  frantically  protesting 
against  the  extension  of  that  boon  to  others  of  their  race.  But 
so  it  was  ;  and,  though  London  and  Bristol  made  demonstrations 
in  favor  of  the  colonies,  the  isolation  of  these  great  markets  served 
only  to  show  more  plainly  the  general  sentiment.  No  fact  in 
history  is  clearer,  than  that,  throughout  this  struggle,  public 
opinion  in  the  British  Isles  was  on  the  side  of  arbitrary  power ; 
and  that  when  friends  were  needed,  constitutional  freedom  found 
few  among  that  constitution-loving  people. 

What  appears  from  the  history  of  those  times  is,  that,  until  a 
tax,  other  than  one  imposed  by  themselves,  was  laid  upon  the  colo- 


CULMINATION  OF  REVOLUTION.  1 9 

nies,  the  colonists  were  quiet,  law-abiding,  aad  loyal.  The  mo- 
ment the  offence  which  afterward  led  to  rupture  was  committed, 
it  was  resented,  but  as  soon  as  it  was  expiated,  they  relapsed  into 
tranquillity,  which  was  stirred  only  by  the  fervent  expression  of  their 
loyalty,  and  broken  only  by  the  convulsion  which  followed  the  dis- 
covery that  the  government  had  been  untrue  to  them.  Then  arms 
were  taken  up,  not  to  avenge  wrongs,  nor  to  achieve  independence, 
but  to  redress  grievance — a  distinction  received  in  England  with 
scorn.  The  immediate  cause,  then,  of  this  outbreak  was  the 
arbitrary  action  of  the  home  government.  That  the  Americans 
were  content  with  their  liberties  as  they  had  them  before  the  first 
act  of  oppression  was  committed  ;.that,  upon  the  warning  given 
by  this  act,  they  sought  to  constitutionalize  these  liberties  ;  that 
they  did  not  take  up  arms  with  a  view  to  independence,  but  to 
enforce  a  recognition  of  their  rights  by  the  constitution  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  that  what  grew  into  a  revolt  became  such  only  when 
that  recognition  had  become  hopeless,  is  proof  convincing  that  the 
Revolution  of  1776  is  a  manifestation  of  the  same  force  which 
produced  the  Revolutioi;!  of  1688,  and  that  the  Americans  simply 
fought  over  the  same  fight  which  the  English  themselves  had 
fought  before  them.  The  motive  of  the  'conflict  was  the  same  ; 
the  parties  to  it  were  the  same,  arbitrary  power  being  on  one  side 
and  the  people  on  the  other,  and  so  far  as  the  attainment  of  con- 
stitutional government  is  concerned,  the  results  were  the  same. 
There,  however,  the  parallel  stops.  Each  succeeding  revolution 
always  takes  a  step  further  forward  than  its  predecessor,  and  the 
American  Revolution  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  The  English 
Revolution  stopped  when  constitutional  limitations  had  been 
placed  upon  the  sovereignty  by  popular  rights  :  the  American 
Revolution  went  still  further,  and  boldly  transferred  the  sover- 
eignty from  the  throne  to  the  people.  In  doing  this,  revolution 
seems  to  have  culminated  ;  for  no  revolution  since  this  has  done 
more.  This  last  step  could  not  have  been  taken  had  not  the 
Revolution  of  1688  set  the  Americans  at  a  point  of  departure 
whence  it  must  be  taken  ;  and  thus  the  Revolution  of  1776  is  a 
necessary  sequence  to  that  of  England,  or  at  least  the  final  chap- 
ter of  a  broken  tale. 

No  event  had  ever  before  made  so  profound  an  impression  on 


20  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

modern  society  as  the  American  Revolution.  History,  it  is  true, 
exhibited  a  growing  list  of  victories  which  freedom  had  gained 
over  usurpation,  but  it  was  not  an  unbroken  series,  and  the  minds 
of  men  still  refused  to  accept  as  an  axiom  the  truth  then  estab- 
lished, that,  with  a  just  cause  and  unity  of  action,  those  who  are 
determined  to  be  free  can  be  free.  When,  then,  the  world  beheld 
communities  which  had  been  fostered  solely  for  the  purposes  of 
peace, — communities  harmless,  unwarlike,  feeble,  remote  from  the 
sympathy  of  friends,  cut  off  from  human  aid,  and  encouraged 
only  by  the  dangerous  applause  of  those  who  would  make  use  of 
them  ;  when  the  world  beheld  such  pigmies  standing  boldly  on 
their  defence  against  such  odds,  it  washed  its  hands  of  the  doom 
that  awaited  them.  But  when,  the  contest  ended,  it  beheld  ar- 
bitrary power  lying  in  the  dust,  while  what  had  been  but  colonial 
factories  stood  erect  as  free  states,  great  was  the  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing. Pity  and  scorn  gave  way  to  admiration,  and  everywhere  the 
oppressed  took  heart  again  ;  for  they  could  see  for  themselves 
how  powerless  force  and  cunning  are  against  the  resolution  of 
the  fierce  spirit  of  liberty,  and  how  impotent  a  giant  clothed  in 
brass  can  be  before  the  stripling  who  comes  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord.  Henceforth  the  lad  whose  days  had  been  passed  in  herding 
flocks  was  accepted  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people. 

Patriots  have  at  different  times  and  in  different  places  as- 
tounded the  world  and  won  its  admiration  by  achieving  at  a  blow 
the  independence  of  their  country  or  the  sanctity  of  their  hearths, 
and  nations  have  earned  the  respect  of  mankind  by  the  patience 
which  has  at  last  wrung  freedom  from  niggardly  time.  Not  so 
these  people  :  they  righted  their  wrongs  too  speedily  to  merit 
praise  for  the  heroism  that  waits  and  is  patient,  and  they  valued 
their  cause  too  highly  to  stake  it  upon  the  hazard  of  a  single 
throw.  What  respect  and  admiration  men  gave  them  was  given 
for  more  sober  conduct  :  for  their  breadth  and  clearness  of 
vision,  their  profound  knowledge  of  constitutional  liberty,  their 
intense  earnestness,  their  faith  in  the  justice  of  their  cause,  their 
prudence  which  left  nothing  to  chance,  their  endurance  and  self- 
sacrifice,  their  restraint  in  the  hour  of  victory,  and  for  the  reason 
and  judgment  with  which  they  rebuilded  their  violated  temple. 
This  is  an  exhibition  of  qualities  rather  than  of  deeds  ;  of  qualities 
which  may  not  be  dramatic  but  which  certainly  are  heroic.     Had 


NEGA  TIVE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE  AMERICANS.        21 

these  people  sprung  to  arms  from  the  bosom  of  society,  and  had 
they  come  before  the  world  clothed  with  the  traditions  and  man- 
ners of  a  past  familiar  to  their  neighbors,  they  could  claim  the  sym- 
pathy of  old  associations,  or,  at  least,  engross  the  attention  of  the 
startled  family  of  commonwealths.  Or  could  they  present  such  a 
motive  as  the  overthrow  of  a  foreign  oppressor,  the  exclusion  of  a 
religion  not  their  own,  or  even  proclaim  independence  of  present 
rule  as  their  object,  they  might  expect  the  immediate  and  atten- 
tive regards  of  mankind.  But  there  was  nothing  of  the  sort : 
their  present  condition  was  as  negative  as  their  past  had  been,  no 
foreigner  oppressed  them,  their  religion  was  their  own,  and  inde- 
pendence, though  a  result,  was  not  a  motive. 

They  were  a  remote  people  ;  the  Atlantic  Ocean  fixed  its  gulf 
between  them  and  their  kindred  blood,  and  thus  removed  from 
Europe,  they  took  no  part  in  its  affairs  and  affected  it  in  neither 
one  way  nor  another.  They  did  not  even  constitute  a  separate 
state  ;  they  were  mere  dependencies  of  a  power  which  could 
number  others  like  them  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  which 
power  itself  was  not  continental  but  insular.  Scattered  along  an 
immense  stretch  of  coast  and  back-lying  uplands,  they  passed 
their  existence  in  trade  and  in  the  fields,  and,  so  far  from  any 
thing  occurring  in  this  simple  life  to  call  forth  genius  or  heroism, 
hardly  a  bubble  rose  to  the  surface  to  indicate  what  was  going  on 
beneath.  They  had  no  literature,  no  great  men,  no  ruins,  no 
tradition,  no  history.  Neither  art  nor  song  was  beholden  to  them  ; 
no  past  glory  was  theirs,  nor  the  enforced  respect  of  acknowledged 
power,  and,  without  long  years  of  oppression  to  move  the  hearts 
of  their  fellow-men,  they  had  not  even  a  claim  to  the  world's  com- 
passion. They  may  have  added  to  the  comfort  of  society,  but 
that  is  all,  and  the  history  of  civilization  might  have  been  written 
without  their  absence  from  its  pages  being  regretted.  Nor  was 
the  motive  which  impelled  them  on  their  glorious  career  much 
more  positive.  They  took  arms,  not  to  gain  more,  but  to  keep 
what  they  had  ;  their  material  prosperity  could  hardly  be  bettered, 
and  greater  freedom  than  theirs  it  was  not  possible  to  attain  ;  for 
they  governed  themselves,  and,  exempt  from  imperial  taxation, 
were  yet  protected  by  the  empire.  Of  all  people  upon  the  earth, 
the  Americans  enjoyed  the  happiest  lot,  save  in  one  thing, — the 
assurance  of  its  continuance  as  a  thing  of  right  and  not  of  grace ; 


22  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

they  had  no  Declaration  of  Rights.  Thus  without  the  attractive- 
ness or  the  misfortune  which  appeal  alike  to  the  sensibilities  of 
ancient  societies,  devoid  of  antecedents,  without  which  those 
organizations  eye  the  intruder  askance,  and  with  no  better  reason 
for  disturbing  the  common  peace  than  the  resolution  to  make 
sure  what  was  already  theirs,  these  little  communities  of  planters 
and  tradesmen  betook  themselves  to  their  task,  after  invoking 
the  God  of  Nations  and  appealing  to  the  judgment  of  mankind. 
Yet,  before  their  work  was  ended,  the  attention  of  the  whole 
civilized  world  was  riveted  upon  them.  Humanity  became 
moved  to  its  deepest  depths  ;  its  hopes  and  fears  rose  and  fell 
with  their  successes  and  defeats,  and  people  held  their  breath 
lest  a  sigh  should  disturb  the  balance  in  which  the  pretensions 
of  arbitrary  power  and  the  rights  of  free  men  hung  so  long  in 
equal  poise. 

Such  were,  or,  rather,  thus  appeared  to  the  beholder,  the  adver- 
saries of  the  most  powerful  empire  the  world  has  seen  since  the 
days  of  ancient  Rome,  and  when  the  contrast  between  the  con- 
testants is  regarded,  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  lukewarm- 
ness  with  which  society  at  first  met  their  appeal.  But  appear- 
ances were  deceptive.  Obscurity  is  not  unfriendly  to  the  growth 
of  manly  virtues,  and  the  remoteness  of  these  people  from  the 
agitation  of  the  world  had  permitted  the  silent  but  vigorous  de- 
velopment of  qualities  which  make  men  heroic.  The  seclusion  of 
their  fields  induced  a  contemplative  disposition,  and  their  afflu- 
ence preserving  them  from  the  sordidness  of  daily  care,  they  could 
safely  let  the  imagination  wing  its  steady  flight.  Free  inquiry 
never  enjoyed  better  conditions  of  existence  than  among  these 
men,  and  freedom  of  conscience  was  theirs  by  inheritance.  They, 
therefore,  did  have  something,  though  it  was  not  striking  to  the 
eye  ;  they  had  much,  and,  had  their  liberties  been  guaranteed  by 
a  constitution,  the  political  philosopher  would  have  beheld  in 
their  condition  the  realization  of  Utopia.  But,  so  long  had 
they  been  in  the  enjoyment  of  these  liberties,  they  never  contem- 
plated their  loss,  and  they  gave  themselves  up  to  the  exercise  of 
their  rights  without  restraint.  This  taught  them  their  use,  and 
self-government  made  these  men  law-givers  and  statesmen.  Lib- 
erty was  to  them  as  substantial  a  fact  as  their  plantations,  and 
they  estimated  its  value  as  coolly  ;  it  was  certainly  as  essential  to 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE   OF  REVOLUTIONS.  23 

their  well-being  as  their  possessions  were.  They  did  not  ap- 
proach it  timidly,  nor  as  dilettanti,  but  boldly  and  with  the  con- 
fidence that  grows  out  of  habitual  contact ;  and  to  their  famili- 
arity with  the  practical  working  of  constitutional  maxims  must  be 
ascribed  that  mastery  in  the  art  of  governing  which  moved  Lord 
Chatham  to  direct  the  eyes  of  those  who  would  know  how  to  con- 
duct states,  not  to  the  works  of  Greece  or  Rome,  to  the  cabinets 
of  Europe,  nor  yet  to  its  parliaments,  but  to  the  little  senates  in 
the  woods  of  America. 

What  led  these  people,  one  after  another,  to  throw  themselves 
at  the  feet  of  the  mother  that  bore  them  and  implore  her  to  with- 
draw her  heavy  hand  ;  what  made  them  rise  as  one  man  in  pas- 
sionate outcry  against  her  ;  what  they  did  to  avert  her  unjust 
wrath  ;  and  how,  one  step  leading  to  another,  they  at  last  cut 
themselves  off  from  maternal  rule,  and  started  out  into  the  world 
by  themselves  ; — all  this  is  worth  the  telling. 

Events,  such  as  wars,  which  close  the  action  of  violent  forces, 
are  too  apt  to  exclude  the  attention  from  the  course  of  that  action 
and  from  its  causes.  Men  love  to  dwell  upon  what  strikes  the 
eye,  and  nothing  so  fills  the  view  as  the  sight  of  warring  hosts. 
But  revolutions  are  not  affairs  of  battle  fields.  They  run  their 
course  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  where  batallions  cannot 
enter,  and  they  are  ended  when  they  have  given  a  community 
something  for  it  to  protect  against  the  world.  Revolutions  do  not 
fight  for  society,  but  society  fights  to  make  good  its  revolutions  ; 
for,  what  they  bring  forth  needs  protection,  and,  as  revolutions 
are  intangible,  there  is  no  power  but  that  of  society  which  can 
give  the  protection  required.  Hence,  revolutions  are  followed 
by  physical  conflicts  (for  the  intruder  is  never  welcomed  by  the 
one  whose  place  it  usurps),  which  must  not  be  confounded,  how- 
ever, with  the  revolutions  themselves.  The  real  Revolution  of 
1688  was  at  an  end  long  before  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne  was 
fought  ;  and  the  real  French  Revolution  was  over  when  the 
National  Guard  was  organized.  In  the  same  way,  the  Revolution 
in  America  was  ended  when  the  conflict  of  opinion  terminated  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  it  was  not  the  Revolution  of 
1783,  when  the  War  for  Independence  came  to  a  close,  but  it  was 
the  Revolution  of   1776.     The  war  was  the  closing  scene  only 


24  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

of  a  long  struggle,  and  the  real  revolution  was  over  before  this 
began.  ^ 

The  story  of  no  successful  attempt  for  freedom  is  richer  in  the 
qualities  which  are  necessary  to  make  men  worthy  of  being  free, 
in  the  circumstances  which  impel  men  to  be  free,  in  the  means 
they  use  to  attain  freedom,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  when,  where, 
and  how  to  strike  the  blow,  than  that  which  sets  forth  the  differ- 
ent stages  through  which  the  American  Revolution  passed  to  the 
War  for  Independence.  This  it  is  which  is  here  designed  to  be 
told,  and  the  story  of  the  final  conflict  will  be  permitted  to  rest 
as  it  has  already  been  narrated,  or  as  it  is  to  be  again  told  by 
others. 

First,  however,  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  causes  and  the 
events  of  the  American  Revolution,  it  is  necessary  to  observe  the 
nature  of  the  ground  and  of  the  actors  ;  what  relations  they 
maintained  toward  each  other,  toward  the  mother-country,  and 
toward  the  world  ;  what  they  really  were  and  what  made  them 
such  ;  and  then  shall  we  better  appreciate  what  impelled  them 
to  become  something  else. 

The  history  of  the  Caucasian  tribes  in  America  has  this  advan- 
tage over  the  history  of  those  tribes  in  Europe — the  tribal  advent 
is  known,  and  its  history,  unbegotten  by  fable  and  unclouded  by 
legend,  can  be  followed,  step  by  step,  from  one  recorded  fact  to 
another,  and  in  the  clear  light  of  day.  When  we  reflect,  that  the 
colonists  were  English  in  origin,  that  they  remained  English  as 
long  as  they  were  subjects  of  the  king  of  England,  that  the  acces- 
sions to  their  number  were  chiefly  from  the  British  isles,  and  that 
the  Anglican  migration  owed  its  impulse  in  a  great  measure  to  the 
Great  Movement  or  Revolution,  we  cannot  but  accept  the  period 
of  constitutional  development  in  England  as  one  which  profoundly 
affected  American  character.  Reviewing,  then,  the  career  of  the 
American  people,  from  the  time  they  came  to  these  shores  as 
Britons,  to  the  time  they  became  Americans,  as  well  in  fact  as  in 
name,  it  will  be  found  that  they  passed  through  three  successive 
stages  or  eras  of  development  : 

*  "  But  what  do  we  mean  by  the  American  Revolution  ?  Do  we  mean  the 
American  war?  The  revolution  was  effected  before  the  war  commenced.  The 
revolution  was  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  ;  a  change  in  their  relig- 
ious sentiments  of  their  duties  and  obligations.  *  *  *  This  radical  change 
in  the  principles,  opinions,  sentiments,  and  affection  of  the  people  was  the 
veal  Ameiicaii  Revolution." — John  Adams,  "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  283. 


TRILOGY  OF  ERAS.  2$ 

I  St,  the  Era  of  Constitutional  Development  in  England  ; 

2d,  the  Era  of  State  Development  in  America  ;  and 

3d,  the  Era  of  Constitutional  Development  in  America. 

Looking  back  from  the  heights  up  which  we  are  still  toiling,  it 
is  plainly  to  be  seen,  that,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the 
First  Era,  the  mastering  spirit  was  Freedom  of  Conscience, — the 
form  Free  Inquiry  took  after  it  had  once  got  its  foothold,  and 
which  includes  the  free  action  of  the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  soul. 
This  freedom  the  colonists  brought  with  them,  as  in  the  cases  of 
Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Georgia, 
or,  as  with  the  rest  of  the  colonies,  developed  after  their  arrival. 

During  the  Second  Era  a  great  step  was  taken.  From  the  force 
of  location  and  circumstances,  certain  qualities,  which  were  in- 
herent in  the  colonists  as  members  of  a  Teutonic  tribe,  enjoyed 
unmolested  exercise,  and,  of  a  consequence,  the  controlling  force 
of  this  Era  will  be  found  to  lie  in  the  undisturbed,  free,  and  natural 
growth  of  Tribal  Institutions.  The  State  had  silently  grown  to 
maturity,  and  had  but  to  await  the  next  and  inevitable  change  to 
assert  its  existence. 

The  Third  Era  is  brief  and  convulsive.  Free  Inquiry,  which, 
passing  from  things  spiritual  to  secular  matters,  had  given  a  con- 
stitutional government  to  England,  now  did  the  same  for  America. 
The  freely-grown  tribal  institutions  stood  the  shock  of  civil  war 
unmoved,  and  displayed  a  degree  of  maturity  little  suspected. 
Under  their  protection,  the  Americans  took  a  step  further  forward 
than  any  yet  taken  in  the  history  of  constitutional  government 
— they  transferred  the  sovereignty  from  the  throne  to  (he  people ; 
or,  as  they  would  term  it,  returned  the  sovereignty  to  the 
hands  whence  it  had  first  emanated.  The  individuality,  which 
during  the  First  Era,  had  been  asserted  in  religion,  and  which, 
in  the  Second  Era,  had  manifested  itself  in  institutions,  displayed 
itself,  in  the  Third  Era,  in  politics,  and  the  ruling  force  of  this 
stage  of  the  country's  development,  may,  therefore,  be  said  to  be 
Popular  Sovereignty. 

Throughout  all  these  eras  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  is  manifest,  and 
the  freedom  of  the  individual  is  clearly  the  expansive  force. 
During  the  First  Era  liberty  was  violent.  It  had  to  force  its  way  ; 
and,  uncertain  of  its  footing,  it  hacked  at  obstacles  it  could  not 
wait  for  time  to  remove.     Its  action,  therefore,  was  characterized 


26  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

more  by  vehemence  than  reason.  But,  transferred  to  America,  it 
appears  wholly  changed  ;  and  the  Second  Era  finds  it  watchful, 
patient,  ruminative,  and  constructive.  It  became  a  tiller  of  the 
soil  ;  it  pruned  with  discretion  ;  and  its  business  seemed  to  be,  to 
wait  on  time,  to  tend  the  growth  of  institutions,  and  to  see  that 
nothing  interfered  with  them.  This  task  accomplished,  it  again, 
in  the  Third  Era,  took  upon  itself  another  character.  It  resented 
intrusion  ;  it  stood  upon  its  defence  ;  it  defied  assault  ;  it  was 
bitter,  uncompromising,  and  fierce.  It  ran  to  meet  its  enemies  ; 
activity  was  in  every  motion.  To  save  an  institution,  it  did  not 
hesitate  at  staking  the  existence  of  a  people  ;  and,  provided  the 
institutions  were  left  unharmed,  the  country  itself  might  lie  in 
ruins.  But,  in  this  Era,  it  was  any  thing  but  irrational ;  its  vehe- 
mence was  controlled  by  reason  ;  and,  as  it  was  not  so  much 
violent  as  fierce,  it  drew  the  sword  only  after  calculating  the  blow. 
As  soon  as  it  had  achieved  its  purpose  of  establishing  popular 
sovereignty  under  the  limitations  of  a  constitution,  its  fierceness 
departed  from  it :  the  work  for  the  time  was  over,  and  it  became 
calm. 

In  order  to  understand  the  American  Revolution,  this  whole 
Trilogy  of  Eras  requires  equal  study  and  reflection  ;  but,  accord- 
ing to  the  design  of  this  work,  the  First  Era  needs  no  more  discus- 
sion than  what  it  has  here  received.  We  can,  accordingly,  pass  to 
the  Second  Era,  which  is  the  first  that  is  purely  American. 


PART    II. 

THE   ERA   OF   STATE  DEVELOPMENT   IN  AMERICA. 

•:;•  *  *  « ^^  gouvernenient  portant  avec  ltd  la  prosperite\  on 
verrait  se  former  de  grands  feuples  dans  les  forets  manes  qu'  elk 
enverrait  habitery 

Esprit  des  Loisy  liv.  xix,  chap,  xxvii 


27 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    SIX    CAPITAL     SOURCES     TO   WHICH     MR.    BURKE    AT- 
TRIBUTED  THE   FIERCENESS   OF  AMERICAN   LIBERTY. 

Descent — Remoteness  of  Situation — The  Forms  of  the  Colo- 
nial Governments^  a7td  the  Political  Relations  of  the 
Colonies. 

WHEN  Mr.  Burke,  in  his  speech  on  conciliation  with 
America,  sought  the  causes  that  made  liberty  in  Ameri- 
ca fierce,  his  analysis  led  him  to  these  six  capital  sources:  (i) 
Descent  ;  (2)  The  Colonial  Forms  of  Government  ;  (3)  Religion 
in  the  Northern  Provinces  ;  (4)  Manners  in  the  Southern  ;  (5) 
Education  ;  and  (6)  Remoteness  of  Situation. 

Political  philosophy  has  accepted  this  analysis  as  true,  so  far  as 
it  goes,  but  not  as  altogether  complete.  The  political  relations 
of  the  colonies  to  the  mother-country  and  to  each  other,  for  in- 
stance, were  such  as  assisted  their  self-development  in  an  extraor- 
dinary manner,  and  thereby  served  to  render  their  spirit  of  liberty 
fierce  ;  and  their  commercial  relations  to  Great  Britain  were  so  pe- 
culiar as  to  affect  their  character  no  less  remarkably.  Doubtless 
these  political  relations  were  included  by  Mr.  Burke  in  his  medi- 
tations upon  the  Forms  of  Government,  although  in  the  Speech  he 
neither  drew  the  distinction  that  existed  between  them  nor  ex- 
hibited their  relationship  ;  and  though  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
this  thoughtful  and  sagacious  philosopher  overlooked  the  political 
and  moral  effects  exerted  upon  the  colonial  constitution  by  the 
commercial  relations  which  he  himself  recognized  as  "  the  corner- 
stone of  the  policy  of  this  country  with  regard  to  its  colonies,"* 

^  Speech  on  American  Taxation.  See,  also,  post  p.  209,  the  positive  utter- 
ances of  John  Adams  to  the  same  effect. 

29 


30  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

yet  these  relations  were  treated  by  him  simply  as  components  of 
an  existing  system  which  affected  the  interests  of  the  whole  em- 
pire. Time,  however,  has  at  last  set  us  at  that  point  where  an 
ordinary  observer  can  gain  a  broader  view  of  the  subject  than  was 
possible  for  even  the  most  far-seeing  of  those  days  ;  and  the  po- 
litical relations  are  perceived  to  be  such  adjuncts  to  the  forms  of 
government  as  to  justify  their  being  coupled  with  them  as  political 
forces,  while  the  commercial  relations  are  seen  to  be  so  peculiar 
and  so  comprehensive,  and  to  exert  such  force  in  developing  con- 
stitutional liberty  and  rendering  it  aggressive,  as  to  warrant  their 
distinct  addition  to  the  causes  of  fierceness  already  assigned.  It 
shall  be  one  of  the  aims,  then,  of  this  treatise  to  set  forth  the  ex- 
tent to  which  these  political  and  commercial  relations  were  expo- 
nents of  American  character,  and  to  show,  also,  how,  as  active  ele- 
ments, they  affected  its  formation  and  development,  and  served  to 
Tender  the  spirit  of  colonial  liberty  fierce.  Accordingly,  the  po- 
litical relations  of  the  colonies  will  be  found  embraced  in  the 
consideration  of  the  Forms  of  Government,  and  the  commercial 
relations  will  be  the  subject  of  distinct  discussion. 

I,  II. — Descent^  and  Remoteness  of  Situation. 

Concerning  the  "  capital  source,"  Descent^  it  is  to  be  remarked, 
that,  if  purity  of  tribal  blood  is  meant  thereby,  this  is  to  be 
accepted  or  rejected  as  a  cause  according  to  the  notions  of  the 
subject  entertained  by  the  observer.  There  are  those  who  main- 
tain that  purity  of  tribal  blood  is  essential  to  vigor  of  race  ;  but 
there  are  others  who,  asserting  purity  of  race  to  be  indispensable, 
see  in  the  mixture  of  tribal  bloods  an  element  of. greater  race 
vigor  and  activity.  A  discussion  of  the  subject  would  only  be 
argumentative^;  a  style  foreign  to  a  process  which  seeks  in  facts 
only  that  are  established  the  historical  plan  they  contain.  This 
cause,  therefore,  may  be  dismissed  without  further  consider- 
ation. 

The  source,  Remoteness  of  situation,  likewise,  needs  but  brief 
observation.     It  may  be  styled  the  physical  one  of  the  six  causes, 

■*  Burke,  himself,  confined  his  observation  on  Descent  as  a  cause  of  fierceness 
to  the  fact  that  the  colonists  were  Englishmen,  and  "  therefore  not  only  devoted 
to  liberty,  but  to  liberty  according  to  English  ideas  and  on  English  principles." 
The  term  "descent"  thus  scarcely  appears  sufficiently  expressive  of  the  true 
cause. 


DESCENT  AND  REMOTENESS.  3 1 

and  as  such  it  is  the  one  most  tangible  and  most  striking  to  the 
eye.  It  speaks  for  itself,  though  it  is  more  exact  to  say,  that,  by 
this  term,  the  laissez-faire  policy  of  Great  Britain  toward  the  colo- 
nies is  meant  rather  than  distance  ;  a  policy  which  was  induced 
in  the  beginning  by  the  fact  that  the  colonies  were  too  remote 
to  allow  of  governmental  interference  in  their  affairs.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  the  indifference,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  the  home 
government  to  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  colonies,  was,  in  a" 
measure,  compelled  by  the  impossibility  of  immediate  action  at 
so  great  a  distance,  supposing  interference  to  be  contemplated. 
This  was  in  the  highest  degree  beneficial  to  the  colonists,  inasmuch 
as  they  were  thus  enabled  to  develop  by  themselves  their  charac- 
ter and  powers  in  a  condition  that  had  no  restraints  put  upon  it 
other  than  those  imposed  by  the  law  of  nature.  Nothing  stunts 
the  growth  of  freedom  so  much  as  the  paternal  care  of  govern- 
ment ;  and  it  requires  no  argument  to  prove,  that,  unembarrassed 
by  external  interference,  one  at  least  of  the  conditions  of  colonial 
life  was  exceedingly  favorable  to  the  self-development  that  always 
invigorates  liberty. 

With  this  brief  notice  of  two  of  the  sources  whence,  according 
to  Mr.  Burke,  there  flowed  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  in  the  British- 
American  colonies,  we  shall  pursue  the  consideration  of  the  others 
mentioned  by  him,  in  the  order  in  which  he  has  placed  them. 

III. —  The  Forms  of  the  Colonial  Governments^  and  the    Political 
Relations  of  the  Colonies. 

The  forms  of  colonial  government  and  the  character  of  the 
relations  existing  between  the  English  colonies  in  America  and 
the  mother-country  appear  at  a  glance,  when  those  forms  and 
character  are  compared  with  the  forms  of  Roman  and  Greek 
colonial  government  and  the  relations  which  the  Roman  and  Greek 
colonies  held  toward  their  sources  of  origin. 

The  colonies  of  Rome  were  of  four  kinds  :  Roman,  Latin, 
Italian,  and  Military.  The  Roman  colonies  were  so  called  from 
the  fact  that  they  were  composed  of  Roman  citizens;  the  Latin, 
from  their  being  selected  from  the  Latins  ;  the  Italian  from 
natives  of  Italy  who  were  neither  Roman  nor  Latin  ;  and  the 
Military  were    made  up   of    garrisons   and    discharged   soldiers. 


32  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

These  last  had  the  same  rights  as  the  Roman  colonies.  Some 
of  these  colonies  were  established  in  Italy,  but  others,  like  the 
Italian,  were  planted  outside  the  boundaries  of  the  peninsula. 
Neither  the  Latin  nor  the  Italian  colonies  possessed  the  same 
rights  as  did  the  Roman  and  the  Military.  All  these  colonies 
resembled  the  municipal  towns  with  right  of  suffrage,  in  that 
they  received  the  laws  of  Rome  ;  and  differed  from  the  allied 
states,  in  that  they  adopted  also  her  form  of  government  and  in- 
stitutions. Since  the  municipal  towns  generally  imitated  these 
of  their  own  accord,  it  was  natural  that  the  difference  between 
them  and  the  colonies  should  be  very  slight.  We,  consequently, 
find  the  same  names  of  magistrates  and  institutions  in  both.^ 

From  the  earliest  times  the  inexorable  law  of  Roman  conquest 
was,  that  the  lands  of  the  conquered  were  seized  upon  by  the 
state.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  Romans  got  possession  of  a 
conquered  territory,  they  sent  colonists  from  Rome  to  inhabit  it 
in  conjunction  with  its  former  inhabitants,  or  to  build  a  new  city 
— for  every  province  had,  for  its  capital,  a  walled  town.  In  this 
way  Rome  gained  two  benefits  :  additional  territory,  and  relief 
from  the  surplusage  of  its  dangerous  classes.  Each  colony  was 
the  result  of  deliberation,  and  was  conducted  in  accordance  with 
a  law  passed  for  the  especial  circumstance.  After  the  proper 
preliminaries,  political  and  religious,  had  been  performed,  com- 
missioners were  appointed,  and,  under  their  guidance  and  the 
protection  of  the  military,  the  colony  proceeded  to  its  appointed 
place.  There,  if  a  new  city  was  to  be  built,  the  ploughshare  ran 
its  lines.  If  no  new  city  was  necessary,  but  all  that  was  required 
was,  that  the  colonists  should  be  mingled  with  the  ancient  inhabi- 
tants in  sufficient  force  to  overawe  and  control  them,  then  their 
chief  work  seems  to  have  been  to  assimilate  the  subjugated  to 
Rome,  as  closely  and  as  rapidly  as  possible,  in  language,  laws, 
customs,  manners,  and  institutions." 

In  this  brief  sketch  of  Roman  colonization,  it  is  impossible  to 
overlook  the  fact,  that  the  government  was  the  head  and  front  of 
the  undertaking.  The  territory  was  almost  invariably  that  which 
had  been  reduced  to  the  possession  of  the  commonwealth  by  the 
force  of  the  public  arms.     No  colony  could  be  thought  of,  until, 

'  "Fuss  Rom,  Antiq.,"  Oxford  trans.,  1840,  cap.  i,  §§  118,  et  seq. 
^  Id.,  cap.  ii,  §§  241  et  seq.  j  Bracket. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  COLONIZATION.  33 

not  ^w^y  ^*hx^  consent  of  the  state  had  been  given,  but  the  mode  in 
whic^i  the  work  should  be  performed  had  been  signified  througli 
an  act  of  the  legislature.  Then,  under  the  guidance  and  control 
of  commissioners  selected  by  the  government,  it  started  on  its 
journey  under  the  iirmed  protection  of  the  state,  and  found,  on  its 
arrival  at  its  destination,  its  immediate  duty  to  be  that  of  creating 
a  subordinate  and  miniature  Rome.  In  modern  times,  when  we 
observe  attentively  the  settlements  of  the  French  in  Canada  and 
Algiers,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  a  resemblance  to  the  colo- 
nies of  Rome,  which  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  that  natural 
proclivity  which  springs  from  an  infusion  of  Latin  blood,  and 
from  the  impressions  stamped  on  the  Gallic  character  in  those 
ages  which  reach  back  to  the  colonies  of  Narbo  and  Lutetia.  In 
France,  the  founding  of  a  colony  is  the  work  of  the  government  ; 
it  is  planted  under  the  protection  of  the  military  ;  it  relies  upon 
the  armed  force  of  the  state,  and  its  first  and  last  duty  is  to  assimi- 
late the  new  acquisition  in  language  to  the  French,  in  laws 
to  the  Code  Napoleon,  and  in  manners  to  those  of  Paris.  When 
the  military  assures  ample  security  for  the  experiment,-  the  capital 
of  the  colony  becomes,  as  we  have  seen,  a  miniature  Paris,  just  as 
Verona,  Treves,  or  Lutetia  became  miniature  Romes. 

Among  the  Greeks,  the  usual  object  in  founding  a  colony  was, 
either  to  relieve  the  state  of  its  redundant  population,  or  to  facili- 
tate trade.  These  colonies  date  from  a  very  early  period,  from 
the  invasion  of  the  Heraclidae,  in  fact,  and  being  chiefly  situated 
on  the  coasts  of  the  adjacent  seas,  they  frequently  rose,  through 
the  advantages  of  their  situation,  to  a  pitch  of  prosperity  sur- 
passing even  that  of  their  parent  states.  The  Greeks  were  far 
more  truly  a  colonizing  people  than  the  Romans. 

Though  the  colonies  went  forth  under  the  auspices  of  the  state, 
and  though  their  connection  with  it  was  marked  by  the  same  em- 
blems of  coinage,  the  same  deities  and  the  same  festivals,  the 
government  assumed  no  such  paternal  attitude  in  respect  to  it  as 
did  Rome  toward  its  colonies,  which  were  ever  looked  on  as  in 
statu  pupillari.  The  colony  was  regarded,  indeed,  in  its  relations 
to  the  state,  as  a  daughter  to  the  mother  ;  but  it  was  regarded,  too, 
as  a  daughter  w^ho  was  to  have  her  natural  growth,  and  who,  in 
the  course  of  time,  was  to  assume  the  rights  and  duties  of  adoles- 
cence.    In  a  political  point  of  view,  therefore,  the  mother  country 


34  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

and  the  colony,  though  united,  were  properly  quite  distinct,  and 
the  former  never  interposed  but  on  extraordinary  emergencies, 
when  its  aid  was  implored  against  foreign  enemies,  or  its  media- 
tion required  in  civil  broils.  In  all  matters  of  common  interest, 
the  colony  gave  precedence  to  the  parent  state,  but  this  did  not 
imply  any  sovereignty  or  permanent  7]yef,iovia  of  the  latter,  any 
right  to  trench  on  the  political  independence  of  its  offspring,  nor 
any  closer  connection  than  that  imposed  by  tlie  ties  of  kindred.^ 

Moreover,  the  Grecian  system  of  colonization  differed  from  that 
of  the  Romans  in  this,  that  under  the  former  the  colony  always 
had  a  founder,  to  whom  were  eventually  given  the  honors  of  a 
hero,  or  demi-god.  This  fact  of  itself  marks  a  great  difference 
from  that  system  under  which  the  state,  and  the  whole  state,  was 
the  founder.  The  Greek  colony  was  expected  to  grow  of  itself  ; 
an  expectation  which,  their  history  shows,  was  uniformly  realized. 

It  will  at  once  be  seen,  that,  differing  though  they  do  from  both 
Grecian  and  Roman,  the  English  colonies  resemble  more  closely 
those  of  the  Greeks.  In  tlieir  foundation  the  government  acts  no 
great  part,  but  they  are  led  forth  by  some  prominent  leader  or  by 
a  company.  In  their  political  relations,  they  are  connected  with 
the  parent  stock  as  daughters  are  with  their  mothers  ;  but  they 
are  expected  to  make  their  own  way,  when  able  to  do  so,  and 
to  assume  the  rights  and  obligations  which  time  imposes  on  all 
who  set  up  for  themselves.  While  they  are  unquestionably  united 
with  the  mother-country,  they  are,  nevertlieless,  distinct  from  her, 
and  owe  allegiance  only  to  the  person  of  the  ruler,  who  never 
interferes  with  them  except  on  extraordinary  occasions.  They  are 
self-governing,  and,  in  every  thing  but  allegiance  and  what  affects 
the  empire  in  common,  are  independent  of  the  parent  and  of  each 
other.  In  fact,  if  the  resemblance  between  the  French  and  Roman 
systems  of  colonization  is  a  marked  one,  still  more  so  is  that  exist- 
ing between  the  Greek  and  English. 

^  For  the  subject  of  the  Greek  colonies  see  the  work  of  Heeren,  and  also 
Hermann's  "  Politic.  Antiq.  of  Greece,"  cap.  iv,  §§  73,  et  seq.  See  further, 
**  History  of  Colonization  of  the  Free  States  of  Antiquity  Ap])lied  to  Contest 
between  Great  Britain  and  her  American  Colonies,"  1777  ;  John  Symond,  in 
opposition  to  preceding,  in  "Remarks  upon  an  Essay,"  etc. ;  Adam  Smith's 
"Wealth  of  Nations  "  ;  Sainte  Croix,  "  De  I'etat  et  du  sort  des  colonies  des  an- 
cins  peuples,"  Philadelphia,  1779;  Barthelemy,  "  Voy.  du  j.  Anach.";  Raoul- 
Roch.,  t.  iii,  15-50. 


COLONIAL   GOVERNMENTS  OF  AMERICA.  35 

Though  resembling  the  Grecian  system  of  colonization,  the 
English  differed  from  it  in  this,  that,  except  indirectly,  the  crown 
took  no  such  prominent  part  in  the  foundation  of  the  colonies  as 
the  Hellenic  governments  did.  It  granted  them  franchises,  and, 
in  return  for  their  allegiance,  the  throne  owed  them  protection  ; 
but  this  was  the  whole  extent  of  governmental  action  and  responsi- 
bility. Sometimes  the  crown  followed  the  examples  set  by  other 
colonizing  powers,  and  ruled  the  colony  as  a  province,  with  a  gov- 
ernor appointed  by  itself  with  something  like  vice-regal  powers  ,* 
sometimes  the  crown  granted  large  tracts  of  land  to  individual^, 
as  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the  proprietary  colonies,  and  these  were 
invested  with  palatine  powers  ;  and  again  the  crown  permitted 
the  settlement  of  a  colony  by  individuals  who  organized  society 
under  laws  which  were  not  to  conflict  with  those  at  home,  nor 
with  the  interests  of  the  throne.  But  whether  the  colonies  were 
royal,  proprietary,  or  chartered,  their  development  was  left  to  the 
enterprise  of  the  colonists  ;  and  the  government,  which  stood 
ready  to  share  in  the  advantages  of  the  undertaking,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  it  held  guardedly  back  from  incurring  any  risk,  limited 
its  action  to  simple  encouragement  and  to  the  barest  direction  it 
was  forced  to  exercise  as  a  ruler.* 

fAs  is  here  indicated,  the  thirteen  colonies  were  of  three  kinds  : 
First,  the  Royal  or  Provincial  Governments  ; 
Second,  the  Proprietary  Governments  ;  and, 
Third,  the  Charter  Governments. 

The  Royal  or  Provincial  Governments  were  characterized  by  a 
delegation  of  the  royal  authority  to  a  Governor,  as  the  King's 
deputy.  At  the  same  time,  and  by  the  same  authority,  a  Council 
to  assist  the  Governor  was  appointed.  When  the  Legislature  of 
the  colony  met,  tliis   Council   formed    the    Upper    House.     The 

^  This  was  clearly  shown  in  ihe  case  of  Virginia,  where  the  government  suf- 
fered the  colonists  to  take  all  the  trouble  and  risk  ;  and  only  awoke  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  their  existence,  when  it  could  share  the  tobacco  crop.  In  the  same  way 
Pennsylvania  and  New  England  were  left  to  shift  for  tliemselves,  until  they 
affected  trade  and  revenue.  Then  they  received  attention.  The  Council  of 
Massachusetts  used  the  following  b.nguage,  January,  1773,  in  an  "Answer  to 
Gov.   Hutchinson." 

"  The  dominion  of  the  crown  over  this  country  before  the  arrival  of  our  pred- 
ecessors was  merely  ideal.  Their  removal  hither  realized  that  dominion  ;  and 
has  made  the  countr"  valuable  both  to  the  ci-own  and  nation,  without  any  cost 
to  either  of  th:m  frovi  that  time  to  this.  Even  in  the  most  distressed  state  of  our 
predecessors,  when  they  exi-ected  to  be  destroyed  by  a  fenerai  conspiracy  and  inva- 
sion of  Indian  natives,  they  had  710  assistance  from  them.^'' 


36  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

Council  was  thus  not  only  a  cabinet  but  a  senate,  which  assisted  in 
making  the  laws  of  the  colony.  Over  this  legislation  the  Gov- 
ernor exercised  the  veto  power,  and  the  right  to  prorogue  and 
dissolve.  When  a  law  was  passed  and  signed,  the  King  signified 
his  approval  or  disapproval.  In  the  Governor's  hands,  also,  was 
lodged  the  power  to  establish  courts,  to  raise  military  forces,  and, 
in  general,  to  perform  all  needful  executive  acts. 

The  Royal  or  Provincial  colonies  were  New  Hampshire,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia.  New  Jersey  and  the  Carolinas,  once  Proprietary,  had 
become  Provincial  Governments  before  the  Revolution. 

The  Proprietary  Governments  were  where  the  King  granted 
rights  and  privileges  to  subjects  who  were  Proprietaries  of  those 
colonies,  and  who  held  the  territory,  according  to  the  general 
tenor  of  legal  opinion,  as  a  feudal  principality.*  Certain  it  is,  that 
the  Proprietary  exercised  regal  power  in  appointing  the  Governor, 
in  calling  together  the  Legislature,  and  in  approving  or  disapprov- 
ing the  laws  enacted.     They  were  quasi  Palatinates. 

Maryland,  of  which  Lord  Baltimore  had  been  the  first  Proprie- 
tary, and  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  of  which  William  Penn  had 
been  the  first  Proprietary,  were  the  only  governments  of  this  de- 
scription at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 

The  Charter  Governments,  unlike  the  Royal  and  Proprietary, 
were  democratic  in  their  nature  ;  the  powers  and  rights  being 
vested  by  a  charter  in  the  colonists,  who  selected  their  own  Gov- 
ernor, Council,  and  Assembly,  though  in  Massachusetts  the  Gov- 
ernor was  appointed  by  the  King. 

Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  were  the  only 
charter  governments  existing  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 

This  diversity  of  constitution  is  owing  to  the  different  times 
and  circumstances  of  settlement,  and  also  to  the  different  charac- 
ter of  the  settlers ;  and  it  shows  how  distinct  the  colonies  were 
from  one  another.'^  They  were,  in  fact,  separate  and  distinct 
bodies  in  separate  and  distinct  territories.      Each  held  the  title  to 

^J.  Adams,  "Canon  and  Feudal  Laws":  but  see  "Story  on  the  Constitution," 
i,  c.  xvii,  §  172,  and  14  "  Pennsylvania  State  Reports,"  492. 

^  "  I  know  of  no  American  constitution  ;  a  Virginia  constitution,  a  Pennsyl- 
vania corstitution  we  have  ;  we  are  totally  independent  of  each  other," — Gallo- 
way's speech,  "  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,"  ii,  390 :  "  Story  on  the  Con- 
stitution," i,  prelim,  chap.,  c.  xvii,  §  177. 


DISTINCT  AUTONOMIES.  37 

its  territory  by  a  grant  separate  and  distinct  from  its  neighbors, 
and,  as  allegiance  was  an  act  of  the  person  and  related  to  the 
crown,  there  was  nothing  else  political  whatever  in  common  be- 
tween them.  The  colony  of  Massachusetts  was  as  distinct  from 
the  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  as  it  was  from  the  colony  of  Jamaica. 
As  colonies  they  were  distinct  and  separate  peoples ;  as  far  as 
their  relations  to  the  crown  were  concerned,  each  owed  it  its  own 
individual  allegiance,  and  the  crown,  in  return,  owed  it  protection 
and  the  free  enjoyment  of  granted  franchises,  without  the  slight- 
est reference  to  any  other  colony.  Had  Virginia  owed  her  al- 
legiance to  the  crown  of  France,  and  Maryland  her  allegiance  to 
the  crown  of  Spain,  they  could  not  have  been  more  distinct  and 
separate  bodies  politic,  in  relation  to  each  other,  than  they  were 
when  both  bore  allegiance  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain.  A  Brit- 
ish subject  indeed,  residing  in  one  of  these  colonies,  would  have 
had  certain  rights  v.^ithin  the  territory  of  the  other,  had  he  chosen 
to  transfer  his  residence  thither  and  exercise  them,  and  some  did 
he  not  so  choose  :  as  the  right  to  own  property  there,  to  inherit 
lands,  and  the  like.  But  this  he  had  from  no  unity  of  the  col- 
onies, express  or  implied,  but  simply  from  the  force  of  his  being  a 
British  subject ;  a  fact  which  gave  him  these  rights  in  whatever 
part  of  the  empire  they  might  fall — as  well  in  the  Bermudas  or 
Bengal,  as  in  New  York  or  the  Barbadoes.  In  a  word,  they  Avere 
separate  and  distinct  autonomies,  of  which  the  citizens  of  one, 
from  the  fact  of  bearing  allegiance  to  the  same  crown,  were  not 
aliens  to  the  citizens  of  the  others.  As  subjects  they  could  make 
no  treaties  with  each  other  ;  as  subjects  they  could  not  be  taxed 
without  their  consent  ;  and  as,  from  their  remoteness  from  the 
capital,  representation  was  impracticable,  they  really  taxed  them- 
selves, and  under  whatever  form  they  might  be.  Royal,  Propriet- 
ary, or  Charter,  they  were  practically  self-governed. 

Dr.  Robertson  expresses  his  surprise,  that  the  charters  should 
have  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  colonists,  since,  in  their  terms, 
they  bestowed  so  little  and  withheld  so  much.*  Had  he  reflected, 
however,  that,  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  three  only  had  charters 
at  the  time  he  wrote,  he  would  have  seen  that  it  was  not  these 
few  charters  which  caused  the  feeling  so  general  throughout  the 
land,  and  which  was  common  with  all   whether  chartered  or  not, 

*  "  America,"  b.  9. 


38  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

but  that  it  was  something  else.  What  charters  there  were,  it  is 
true,  did  not,  in  their  terms,  bestow  every  thing  free  men  could 
desire  ;  but  they  did  give  something  to  a  colonist  which  was  not 
conceded  to  an  Englishman.  They  gave  him  freedom  of  con- 
science, either  expressly  or  by  implication,  and  they  had  to  recog- 
nize the  fact,  that  communities  planted  in  a  distant  desert,  must,  of 
necessity,  govern  themselves  in  very  many  respects.  These  were 
all  important  concessions  by  the  sovereign  ;  concessions  impor- 
tant not  only  in  the  franchises  granted,  but  in  what  they  threw 
open  the  doors  to. 

The  charters  were  always  looked  upon  as  compacts  between  the 
king,  acting  on  the  behalf  of  the  nation,  and  the  first  planters 
or  settlers.  Though  this  view  of  them  might  not  satisfy  the  strict 
technicalities  of  legal  construction,  it  was  one  never  disputed 
until  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act ;  but  was  accepted  by  political 
writers  in  England  and  acted  upon  by  both  the  crown  and  the 
colonists.  By  this  compact,  it  was  considered,  the  nation  solemnly 
promised,  that  if  the  adventurers,  at  their  own  cost  and  charge, 
and  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  every  thing  dear  to  them, 
would  purchase  a  new  world,  subdue  a  wilderness  and  thereby 
enlarge  the  king's  dominions,  they  and  their  posterity  should 
enjoy  such  rights  and  privileges  as  were  expressed  in  their  respec- 
tive charters ;  which,  in  general,  were  all  the  rights,  liberties,  and 
privileges  of  his  majesty's  natural-born  subjects  within  the  realm 
of  England/ 

The  charters,  then,  being  inducements  to  settlers  to  undertake 
what  was  a  hazardous  venture,  the  same  reasons  which  urged  the 
crown  to  hold  out  these  inducements,  led  it  also,  after  the  settle- 
ment had  taken  place,  to  abstain  from  any  act  which  might  add 
the  weight  of  its  hand  to  the  burdens  nature  lays  upon  every 
community  that  invades  its  wilds.  The  first  steps  of  the  colonies 
were  thus  unhampered  ;  the  more  so  as  the  poverty  of  the  settlers 

*  Extract  from  a  letter  from  the  House  of  Kep.  of  the  Mass.  Bay  to  their  agent 
Dennys  de  Berdt,  London,  1 770:  "Although  the  crown  might  not  have  a  right 
to  grant  such  exclusive  privileges,  yet  the  grants  having  once  been  made,  and 
the  colonists  having  settled  upon  the  faith  of  them,  they  doubtless  acquire  a 
sanction  and  an  authority  which  nothing  but  the  most  urgent  necessity  can 
justly  alter.  Though  wrongly  given,  they  are  rightly  established,  and  it  would 
be  much  more  wrong  to  take  them  away."  "  A  Short  View  of  the  History  of 
the  New  England  Colonies."  by  Israel  Mauduit,  4th  ed.,  1776,7.  Even  Sir 
Josliua  Child  ndmitted  the  sanctity  of  the  charters,  though  neither  he,  Gee,  noi 
Ashley  showed  any  deference  to  them. 


CHARTERED  LIBERTIES.  39 

and  the  hazard  of  th^  venture  offered  little  temptation  to  the 
doubtful  patronage  of  monarchs.  Thus  left  to  themselves  to 
make  good  their  footing,  the  colonists  were  compelled  to  exercise 
powers  which  belonged  solely  to  the  sovereign,  and  they  did  so 
unchallenged  by  the  only  power  that  had  a  right  to  question  them. 
This  was  liberty  ;  and  no  vigorous  people,  after  once  enjoying 
liberty,  have  ever  been  known  to  show  any  thing  but  pleasure  at  its 
possession.  The  public  mind  does  not  affect  nicety  of  distinction, 
and  as  it  was  natural  that  the  people  should  unite  in  the  same 
view,  the  liberties  they  had  acquired  with  those  which  had  been 
granted,  it  was  natural,  too,  that  they  should  accept  what  was 
visible  and  tangible  as  the  representative  of  what  was  not  so,  and 
symbolize  by  the  word  "  charter "  every  liberty  they  possessed. 
Thus,  what  Dr.  Robertson  deemed  an  attachment  to  charters  was 
really  an  attachment  to  personal  liberty.  If  this  be  not  so  ;  if  it 
be  not  the  many  liberties  acquired,  but  rather  the  few  franchises 
granted,  which  the  colonists  regarded  with  such  veneration,  how 
are  we  to  account  for  the  same  feeling  in  the  ten  colonies  which 
had  no  charters  ?  Only  by  that  fact.  The  same  conditions  of 
colonial  existence  caused  the  same  benign  indifference  on  the 
part  of  the  crown,  and  this  benignity  was  recorded  in  the  com- 
missions of  the  governors  in  terms  to  which  time  soon  lent  the 
force  of  custom,  and  which,  in  the  royal  colonies,  became  equiva- 
lent to  charters,  so  far  as  franchises  are  concerned.^  The  people 
of  these  colonies,  likewise,  had  to  exercise  the  powers  of  govern- 
ments as  those  of  the  chartered  colonies  did,  and  this  exercise  was 
recorded  in  the  laws  ;  the  crown  had  to  recognize  the  acts  of 
sovereignty  in  their  case  as  in  that  of  the  others  ;  precedent  was 
as  forcible  here  as  there,  and  thus,  in   the  course  of   time,  liberty 

'  "  The  commissions  to  the  governors  contained  the  plan  of  government,  and 
the  contract  between  the  king  and  the  subject  in  the  former  \i.  e.  the  royal 
governments],  as  much  as  the  charters  in  the  latter"  \i.  <?.,  the  charter  govern- 
ments.]. Novanglus,  "  Life  and  Works,"  John  Adams,  iv,  126  :  "  As  to  those 
colonies  which  are  destitute  of  charters,  the  commissions  to  their  governors  have 
ever  been  considered  as  equivalent  securities,  both  for  property,  jurisdiction, 
and  privileges,  with  charters  ;  and  as  to  the  crown  being  absolute  in  those  colo- 
nies, it  is  absolute  nowhere."     Id.,  id.,  127. 

"  If  the  first  commissions  from  the  crown  to  the  governor  of  any  colony,  and 
the  forms  of  government  prescribed  by  such  commissions,  are  a  precedent  to  be 
followed  in  all  succeeding  commissions,  and  a  system  of  laws  once  approved  by 
the  crown  cannot  be  repealed  (all  which  is  contended  l)y  the  inhabitants  of  the 
royal  governments)  the  cliartt_'r  to  tl^e  Massachusetts  was  not  so  great  a  boon  as 
our  forefathers  generally  imas^ined." — "  llibt.  of  Prov.  of  Mass.  Bay"  (Hutchin- 
son).    Ed.  1767.  ii,  II. 


40  CONSTITUTIONAL    LIBERTY. 

became  as  well  assured  among  them  as  among  their  neighbors. 
The  term  "chartered  liberties"  lost  in  the  three  colonies  its 
strictly  technical  sense,  and,  in  all,  it  acquired  the  meaning  of 
liberties  which  had  recorded  precedents  to  sustain  them  ;  and 
thus  it  is  that  so  significant  an  attachment  to  charters  originated, 
and  that  the  Americans  made  so  much  of  this  term. 

These  governments,  though  diverse  in  constitution,  were,  never- 
theless, one  in  spirit,  as  a  comparison  of  the  annals  of  the  most 
important  ones  clearly  shows.  For,  though  the  terms  of  the  char- 
ters varied,  and  we  find  the  utmost  dissimilarity  existing  between 
the  ideas  and  institutions  of  the  different  colonies  in  the  early 
stages  of  their  growth,  nevertheless,  the  operation  of  time,  the 
similarity  of  circumstances,  the  identity  of  motives,  and,  above  all, 
the  same  common  law,^  seem  to  have  bent  the  whole  family  in 
one  direction,  so  that,  when  ready  to  assert  their  independence, 
common  notions  of  free  government  and  of  what  constituted  civil 
liberty  governed  all  the  members  alike,  and  community  of  inter^ 
est  caused  all  to  act  together. 

The  first  colonial  government  that  we  are  to  notice  may  b(b 
said  to  differ  from  the  rest  of  the  mass.  It  was  so  thoroughly 
monarchical,  that,  at  one  time,  James  I.,  and  afterward  Charles  I., 
might  be  styled  the  absolute  monarchs  of  what,  at  a  later  day,  was 
formally  annexed  by  Charles  I.  to  the  realm  of  England,  and  ad- 
herence to  monarchical  rule  was  so  much  the  characteristic  of  the 
people,  that  they  not  only  exulted  in  the  name  of  their  territory 
derived  from  the  virgin  queen,  but  their  pride  of  loyalty  added 
still  another  designation  to  the  land,  that  of  the  Old  Dominion. 
Yet,  when  the  time  came,  Virginia  was  among  the  foremost  in  the 
assertion  of  independence. 

The  first  charter  under  which  Virginia  was  colonized  was  one 
granted  to  a  company,  and  it  may  be  briefly  and  negatively  de- 
scribed as  one  which  did  not  concede  in  terms  the  right  of  self- 
government.     This  charter  was  from  time  to  time  revised.     The 

^  The  colonists  carried  with  them  the  common  law.  See  Lord  Maiibfield  in 
Hall  V.  Campbell,  Cowp.  R.  204,  211,  212  ;  and  Lord  EUenborough  in  Rex  v. 
Brampton,  10  East  R.  282,  288,  289.  liut,  even  if  they  did  not,  as  JMackstone 
maintains,  I  "Comm.,"  107,  nevertheless,  with  the  single  exception  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, every  charter  contained  a  clause  expressly  declaring  that  all  subjects  and 
their  children  should  be  deemed  natural-born  subjects,  and  as  such  enjoy  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  thereof  ;  and,  either  expressly,  or  by  implic.ition,  it 
was  provided  tliat  the  laws  of  England,  so  far  as  applicable,  should  be  in  force. 
See  further,  Stokes*  "Hist.  Colon.,"  20,  23,  149,  184,  185. 


THE   VIRGINIA   CHARTER.  4 1 

company  was  authorized  to  engage  as  colonists  any  of  the  sub- 
jects of  the  British  crown  who  should  be  disposed  to  emigrate. 
All  persons  being  British  subjects  and  inhabiting  the  colony,  and 
their  children  born  therein,  were  declared  to  have  all  the  liber- 
ties, franchises,  and  immunities  within  any  other  dominion  of  the 
crown,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  if  they  had  been  abiding  in 
the  realm  of  England.  The  patentees  were  to  hold  their  lands  in 
free  and  common  socage,  and  not  in  capites  In  respect  to  politi- 
cal organization,  the  colony  was  to  be  governed  by  a  local  coun- 
cil, appointed  and  removable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  This 
council  was  to  be  under  the  supreme  management  and  direction 
of  another  council  sitting  in  England,  and  a  duty  was  imposed  on 
all  persons  trafficking  with  the  colony,  and  the  colonists  them- 
selves were  prohibited  from  trading  with  foreign  countries."  This 
charter,  similar  to  the  one  under  which  New  England  was  after- 
ward settled,  was  altered  in  1609  and  16 12,  without  any  impor- 
tant change,  however,  as  to  the  civil  or  political  rights  of  the  colo- 
nists, and  it  is  the  illiberal  tenor  of  this  instrument  which  caused 
Dr.  Robertson^  to  express  his  surprise,  that  the  colonists  were 
satisfied  with  what  gave  so  little  and  withheld  so  much.  But,  as 
the  colony  increased  in  numbers  and  importance,  its  tone  waxed 
more  and  more  self-reliant  and  independent,  until,  under  the  con- 
tinued relaxation  of  company  rule,  it  called  together,  in  1619,  a 
general  assembly  composed  of  its  own  citizens,  and  this  first  rep- 
resentative legislature  in  America,  whose  existence  was  sanctioned 
by  an  ordinance  of  council,  in  162 1,  remained  ever  after,  except 
during  a  suspension  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  a  permanent 
feature  of  the  colonial  government.  The  company  having  lived 
long  enough  to  confer  on  Virginia  the  boon  of  what  was  practi- 
cally self-government,  had  its  grant  of  franchises  forfeited  in  pro- 
ceedings under  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  in  1624,  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  colony  became  immediately  dependent  on  the  crown. 
Henceforth,  Virginia  was  a  royal  province.*  It  was  annexed  by 
Charles  I.  to  the  crown,  its  assembly  was  not  convened,  and  it 
might  have  continued  to  be  ruled  despotically,  had  not  the  neces- 

*  That  is,  by  services  which  are  free,  honorable,  and  certain,  as  opposed  to 
those  that  were  free,  honorable,  but  unceiiain. 
'^  I   Ilaz.  "Coll.,"  50  ;  Marshall's  "  Colon.,"  26. 
^  "  America,"  b.  9. 
^I  Haz.  "Coll.,"  220,  225. 


42  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

sities  of  the  king  responded  to  the  demands  of  the  colonists  (who, 
having  once  tasted  the  sweets  of  self-government,  were  not  dis- 
posed to  give  them  up),  by  calling  together  the  legislature  under 
the  direction  of  Sir  William  Berkeley,  whose  favorable  disposition 
toward  the  colonists  enabled  them  to  take  great  steps  in  the  art  of 
governing  themselves.  The  natural  proclivity  of  the  colonists 
assisted  the  direct  efforts  of  the  government,  and  the  common 
law,  itself  favorable  to  the  growth  of  free  principles,  was  estab- 
lished as  the  law  of  the  land.  The  effect  of  this  ancient  body  of 
laws  and  free  customs,  however,  was  in  some  degree  counterbal- 
anced by  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England  as  the 
colonial  church,  and  the  adoption  of  all  the  intolerant  notions 
then  characteristic  of  the  age  and  family  that  sat  upon  the  throne. 
The  distribution  of  property  on  the  death  of  the  owner  followed 
the  course  prescribed  by  the  laws  of  England,  and,  thoroughly 
conservative  and  aristocratic  in  disposition  and  in  its  social  struct- 
ure, Virginia  displayed,  to  an  overweening  extent,  the  fondness  of 
the  race  for  the  soil,  and  its  love  of  territorial  accumulation,  by 
going  beyond  the  mother-country  in  obstructing  the  alienation  of 
land,  and  by  supporting  entailments  in  a  manner  which  surpassed 
the  rest  of  English  society  in  stringency.  She  constituted  the 
most  prominent  example  of  a  royal  colony,  or  what  might  almost 
be  called  a  royal  province.  She  was  conservative  ;  she  loved 
royalty  and  its  belongings  ;  her  large  estates,  the  absence  of  any 
great,  balancing  middle  class,  and  the  absolute,  personal  owner- 
ship of  her  labor,  made  her  extremely  aristrocratic  ;  and  her 
pride  lay  in  her  fidelity  to  what  the  northern  colonies  were  learn- 
ing to  dislike.  But  as,  reacting,  this  very  social  organization 
strengthened  the  conservatism  and  haughtiness  of  which  it  was 
the  expression,  so  it  made  her  sensitive  to  the  infringement  of 
personal  rights,  and  called  into  existence  ideas  of  personal  liberty 
which  stubbornly  maintained  their  position.  While  the  constitu- 
tion of  her  government  was  verging  on  absolute  rule,  the  indi- 
viduals who  were  governed  were  fiercely  free.  As  long  as  they 
had  their  freedom,  they  snapped  their  fingers  at  the  terms  of 
charters,  the  commissions  of  governors,  and  the  avidity  of  kings. 
In  fact,  the  growth  of  no  colony  displays  so  forcibly  the  rise  of 
positive  liberty  under  the  quickening  influence  of  benign  indiffer- 
ence on  the  part  of   the  home  government  for  the  management  of 


NORTHERN  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.  43 

colonial  affairs,  and  in  spite  of  fettering  charters,  as  does  that  of 
Virginia.^ 

With  this  exception  of  Virginia,  the  governments  of  all  the 
other  colonies  may  be  said  to  be  very  much  alike  in  character  and 
form,  and  may  all  be  described  in  a  breath  as  being  of  the  very 
opposite  in  nature  from  that  of  Virginia.  In  a  word,  as  she  was 
aristocratic  in  social  constitution,  they  were  democratic,  with  the 
exception  of  New  York,  Maryland,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the 
colonies  south  of  her.  The  share  taken  by  the  people  in  the 
government  was  much  greater  in  the  colonies  north  of  her  ;  for, 
popular  representation  having  been,  in  their  cases,  assured  to 
them  by  the  crown  at  a  very  early  day  in  their  history,  some  of 
them  might  almost  lay  claim  to  being  styled  veritable  democra- 
cies. 

Proceeding  north,  we  come  at  once  to  Maryland,  where  the  dis- 
tribution of  power,  involving  as  it  did  that  of  the  people,  seems 
to  have  been  dictated  by  great  sense  and  prudence.  In  its  char- 
ter, probably  composed  by  Calvert  himself,  an  independent  share 
in  the  government  was  reserved  to  the  colonists  ;  for  representa- 
tive government  was  secured  by  the  provision  that  the  assent  of 
the  people,  in  assembly  convened,  was  requisite  to  the  validity  of 
the  proprietaries'  levies  of  taxation.  As  this  assembly  made  the 
laws  and  ratified  the  action  of  the  proprietary  or  governor,  Mary- 
land was  really  self-governed. 

In  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  including  Delaware,  society 
was  expressly  organized  on  the  basis  of  self-government,  and  this 
feature  of  their  colonial  life  was  always  inviolably  preserved. 

In  New  England,  though  settled  under  what  might  be  called  the 
same  kind  of  charter  as  that  of  Virginia,  the  people  had  a  voice  in 
every  thing  that  pertained  to  the  administration  of  their  affairs, 
and  the  charters  granted  from  time  to  time  to  the  colony  of  Mass- 
achusetts Bay,  to  its  offshoots,  and  to  those  established  indepen- 
dently of  it,  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  emphasis  of  the 
right  of  the  colonies  to  govern  themselves.  There,  too,  the  char- 
ter of  the  Plymouth  company  was  transferred  at  an  early  day  to 
the  colony, '^  and  thus  the  colonists  themselves  became  the  recipi- 

^  For  characteristics  of  the  colonial  constitution  of  Virginia  and  other  colo- 
nies, see  "Story  on  the  Constitution,"  b.  i,  chaps.  2,  et.  scq.,  whom  I  have 
quoted  at  large. 

'^  Sept.  I,  1629. 


44  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

cnts  of  the  franchises  granted.  As  this  charter  provided  for  gen- 
eral assemblies  of  the  company,  the  colonists  had  the  immediate 
enjoyment  of  self-government.  That  they  erected  an  oligarchy, 
only  proves  the  existence  of  self-government  more  conclusively  ; 
inasmuch  as  they  did  it  of  their  own  motion,  and  in  making  choice 
of  a  form  so  different  from  the  one  under  which  they  had  pre- 
viously lived,  they  exercised  the  liberty  of  governing  themselves 
at  the  very  first  step  and  in  the  most  positive  way.  But,  as  under 
the  exercise  of  this  franchise,  the  oligarchical  feature  of  their  or- 
ganization melted  away,  in  the  course  of  time,  before  the  popular 
element,  no  further  notice  need  be  taken  of  it. 

In  the  address  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  Par- 
liament, in  1646,  it  is  said  :  "  The  highest  authority  here  is  in  the 
General  Court,  both  by  our  charter  and  by  our  own  positive 
laws."*  This  General  Court,  or  representative  assembly,  was  in- 
vested with  full  authority  to  erect  courts  of  justice,  to  levy  taxes, 
and  to  make  all  wholesome  laws  and  ordinances,  "  so  as  the  same 
be  not  repugnant  or  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England"  ;  to  settle 
annually  all  civil  officers,  and  to  grant  lands.  Certainly,  here  was 
self-government  ;  self-government  that,  including  all  freemen, 
bordered  on  simple  democracy.  Had  it  been  denied  the  power  of 
regulating  faith  and  extirpating  heresy,  liberty  would  have  little 
to  complain  of  it. 

In  New  Hampshire,  which  was  not  Puritan  in  its  social  consti- 
tution, but  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  liberty  of  conscience 
to  all  Protestants,  the  government  was,  in  1679,  defined  in  a  com- 
mission issued  by  the  crown.  This  commission,  among  other 
things,  provided  for  a  colonial  legislature  to  be  composed  of  the 
represjentatives  of  the  colonists  themselves,  and  thus  the  people 
of  New  Hampshire  were  self-governed, 

Connecticut  was,  by  its  charter  of  1662,  entitled  to  two  general 
assemblies  annually,  and  to  such  an  extent  was  the  right  of  self- 
government  conceded,  that  Chalmers  complains  that  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  colony  was  "  a  mere  democracy  or  rule  of  the 
people."  ^ 

Rhode  Island,  in  1663,  obtained  a  charter,  which,  as  we  might 
suppose  from  a  knowledge  of  its  founder  and   his  principles,  ])re- 

^  I  Hutch.  "  Mist.,"  145,  146  ;  3  Hutch.  "  Coll.,"  199. 
'  "  Annals,"  296. 


SELF-GOVERNMENT.  45 

served,  in  remarkably  emphatic  language,  "  full  liberty  in  religious 
concernments/'  Liberty  is  rarely  found  in  fragments,  and  v.e 
consequently  find  that,  in  this  colony,  the  exercise  of  self-govern- 
ment is  conceded  to  the  fullest  extent.' 

New  York  was  a  royal  colony  ;  but,  as  under  the  first  governor, 
an  assembly  was  called  in  169 1,  and  the  right  to  representation 
was  never  abrogated,  self-government  must,  likewise,  be  said  to 
be  an  inherent  feature  of  its  colonial  organization. 

South  of  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  at  first  one  but  afterward  di- 
vided, having  tried  in  vain  the  ideal  aristocracy  of  Locke,  consti- 
tuted also  royal  colonies.  As  their  assembly  was  composed  of 
their  own  representatives,  and,  like  the  other  colonies,  managed 
their  own  affairs  in  conjunction  with  the  coordinate  branches  of 
government,  they,  too,  were  self-governed. 

As  for  Georgia,  its  colonial  life  was  too  short,  and  its  population 
too  scanty,  to  illustrate  the  growth  of  liberty,  or  the  exercise  of 
self-government,  even  if  it  had  any.  Its  real  life  may  properly  be 
said  to  date  only  from  the  time  it  became  an  independent  state. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  colonies  were  self-governed,  and,  were  v^e 
to  follow  their  history  in  detail,  we  should  see,  moreover,  thr.t, 
from  the  periods  of  their  inception,  this  tribal  disposition  to  self- 
government  asserted  itself  successfully.  It  was  this  characteristic, 
indeed,  as  has  been  said,  which  made  States  of  them.  When,  there- 
fore, we  observe,  that  this  freedom  of  government  went  hand  in 
hand  with  freedom  of  thought,  of  conscience,  of  speech,  and  of 
action,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain  in 
America  were  very  free  ;  more  free,  in  fact,  than  were  the  English 
themselves  in  England. 

But,  in  no  respect  did  they  more  emphatically  display  their  free 
condition,  than  in  their  exemption  from  all  taxation,  save  what 
they  imposed  on  themselves.  Had  not  this  fact  existed,  they 
would  in  truth  have  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  crown,  and  would 
have  been  mere  dependencies,  of  which  the  inhabitants  would 
have  found  to  be  very  apples  of  Sodom,  filled  with  dust  and  ashes, 
those  saving  clauses,  so  pleasant  to  the  eye,  that  secured  to  them 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  English  citizens.  This  exemption,  how- 
ever, existing  in   their  favor  from   a  time   anterior  to  the  fixed 

^  The  government  of  this  pnjvince  (Rhode  Island)  is  entirely  democratical. 
Ilurnaby's  "Travels,"  123. 


4^  CONSriTUTIO.VAL  LIBERTY. 

establishment  in  England  itself  of  the  principle  of  no  taxation 
without  representation,  early  instilled  into  them  the  sense  of  a 
responsibility  to  take  care  of  themselves,  a  knowledge  of  the  power 
that  lay  in  them,  and  a  feeling  of  independence,  which,  neverthe- 
less, was  remarkably  slow  in  reaching  a  development  that  involved 
political  disjunction.  Though  the  needs  of  government  often 
directed  attention  to  them  as  sources  of  revenue,  yet,  until  the 
last  stage  of  colonial  existence  was  reached,  no  king  approved 
and  no  cabinet  dared  the  enforcement  of  a  policy  which  would 
constitute  them  such.  On  that  point  the  temper  of  the  colonies 
was  not  to  be  mistaken.  Colonies  they  were,  colonies  they  ex- 
pected, nay,  hoped  to  remain,  but  satrapies  they  were  determined 
to  be  never. 

It  is  true,  that,  at  an  early  day,  the  value  of  the  tobacco  trade, 
by  exciting  the  cupidity  of  the  Stuarts,  threatened  to  pave  the 
way  to  a  revenue  system  v/hich  would  benefit  the  crown  at  the 
expense  of  the  colonies.  But  the  efforts  of  those  monarchs  to 
control  the  staple^  were  not  so  much  political  as  personal,  and 
bore  not  so  heavily  on  the  rights  of  the  Virginians  as  on  their 
pockets.  Those  efforts  met  with  an  opposition  from  America 
which  rendered  them  wholly  abortive  as  acts  of  oppression.  As 
early  as  1624,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  secured  to  this  crop  protection 
against  foreign  competition.'  So  valuable  had  it  already  become, 
and  so  destitute  were  the  colonists  of  ready  money,  that,  for  a  long 
while,  it  was  transferred  from  hand  to  hand  as  currency,  until,  in 
1645,  this  barter  was  prohibited,  and  Spanish  pieces  were  sub- 
stituted as  the  standard.^  From  the  very  beginning,  however, 
tobacco  was  made  the  subject  of  governmental  regulation,  and 
orders,  acts  of  Parliament,  and  proclamations  concerning  it,  suc- 
ceed each  other,*  as  a  matter  of  course,  in  the  list  of  those  which 

^  ' '  The  Staple  appears  originally  to  have  meant  a  particular  port,  or  other 
place,  to  which  certain  commodities  were  brought  to  be  weighed  or  measured 
for  the  imposition  of  customs  duties  previous  to  being  exported  or  sold."  Eccles- 
ton's  "  Eng.  Ant.,"  b,  iv,  chap.  v.      McCuUoch's  "Comm.,   Die,"  Tit.  Staple. 

"  Stith,  328  ;  Haz.,  I,  193  ;  Pari.  Hist.,  I,  1489,  et  seq. 

'  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  Query  xxi. 

*  Here  are  those  which  I  have  extracted  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  list,  "Notes  on 
Virginia,"  Query  xxiii.  1  give  the  titles  of  several:  The  first  is,  "Commissio 
specialis  concernens  le  garbling  herbae  Nocotianae,"  1620,  Apr.  7,  18  Jac,  I.  17 
Rym.  190.  "A  proclamation  for  the  utter  prohibition  of  the  importation  and 
use  of  all  tobacco  which  is  not  of  the  proper  growth  of  the  colony  of  Virginia 
and  the  Somer  islands,  or  one  of  them,"    1625,  Mar.  2,  22  Jac.  I.  17  Rym.  668. 


REPRESENTATION  IN  VIRGINIA,  47 

are  devoted  to  the  ordinary  subjects  of  government.  The  proc- 
lamations concerning  the  protection  of  tobacco  in  the  colonies* 
having  set  a  premium  on  its  cultivation,  and,  thus,  rapidly  enlarged 
the  area  of  its  planting  and  the  quantity  and  value  of  the  crop, 
were  soon  followed  by  what  showed  that  the  monarchs,  father 
and  son,  were  not  altogether  disinterested  in  the  aid  thus  royally 
extended.  For,  in  1628,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  governor 
and  council  of  Virginia,  the  king,  Charles  I.,  offers  to  buy  of  the 
planters  their  whole  crop  of  tobacco.  This  was  royal  merchan- 
dising, indeed  ;  and,  with  the  mistrust  of  a  huckster,  that  this 
wholesale  forestalling  might  not  prove  altogether  palatable  to  the 
colonists,  it  was  sweetened  by  an  express  desire  that  a  colonial 
assembly  be  convened  to  consider  the  proposal. 

It  has  been  already  noticed  in  this  work,  how  apparently  capri- 
cious liberty  is  in  her  choice  of  instruments  whereby  to  establish 
herself,  and  how  quick  she  is  to  adopt  any  means  of  gaining  a 
footing.  We  have  here  another  instance  of  her  readiness  to  take 
advantage  of  circumstances.  In  this  case,  the  cupidity  and  neces- 
sity of  a  king  were  the  means  employed  ;  to  satisfy  which,  a 
monarch,  for  the  first  time,  conceded  to  a  portion  of  his  people 
the  exercise  of  the  highest  attribute  of  free  government,  and,  by 
admission,  yielded  that  concerning  which  the  title-deed  to  colonial 
existence  had  maintained  a  guarded  and  forbidding  silence.^    The 

"De  proclamatione  de  signatione  de  tobacco,"  1627,  Mar.  30,  3  Car.  I.  17  Rym. 
668.  "  Id.  pro  ordinatione  de  tobacco,"  same  year,  18  Rym.  920.  "  A  proc- 
lamation restraining  the  abusive  venting  of  tobacco,"  1633  ;  and  another, 
"  concerning  the  landing  of  tobacco,"  and  also  "  forbidding  the  planting  thereof 
in  the  king's  dominions."  Both  in  19  Rym,  522,  553.  Of  these,  there  are 
twenty  in  all  :  four  under  James  I.,  fifteen  under  Charles  I,,  and  one  under 
Charles  11,  There  does  not  appear  to  be  any  under  the  Commonwealth,  and 
they  extend  from  1620  to  1644,  In  consequence  of  the  rise  in  price  under  these 
restrictions  of  competition,  the  legislature  enacted  that  *'  no  man  need  pay 
more  than  two  thirds  of  the  debts  "  which  had  been  contracted  to  be  paid  in 
that  commodity,  and  that  creditors  should  not  have  a  legal  right  to  more  than 
"forty  pounds  for  a  hundred," — a  most  despotic  act,  which  ignored  the  inviola- 
bility of  contracts  and  was  the  first  instance  of  "repudiation"  in  America, 
Hening,  I,  225  et  seq.;  Brockenborough's  ''Virginia,"  586, 

^1624,  Sept,  29,  22  Jas,  I,  17  Rym,  621  ;  1625,  Mar,  2,  22  Jas.  I.  17  Rym. 
668  ;  1626,  Feb.  17,  2  Chas.  I.  Rym.  848  ;  1627,  Mar.  30,  3  Chas.  I,  iS  Rym. 
886  ;  1627,  Aug,  9,  3  Chas.  I,  18  Rym.  920. 

'  Bancroft's  remarks  on  this  subject  are,  in  view  of  what  I  have  said  concern- 
ing it,  and  the  let-alone  demeanor  of  England  toward  her  colonies,  worthy  of 
quotation  : — ''  Hillierto,"  says  he,  "  the  king  had,  forhmately  for  the  colony, 
found  no  tiftie  to  take  order  for  its  government.  His  zeal  for  an  exclusive  con- 
tract  led  him  to  observe  and  to  sanction  the  existence  of  an  elective  legislature. 
"Hist    U,  S."  I,  chap,  vi. 


48  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

impecuniosity  of  princes  has  always  been  favorable  to  liberty. 
But  it  was  the  fate  of  the  unlucky  Charles,  in  all  his  schemes  of 
aggrandizement,  to  fall  short  of  his  object,  and,  yet,  at  the  same 
time,  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  those  of  whom  he  expected  to 
make  something.  This  very  tobacco  speculation  illustrated  his 
miscalculations,  or  bad  fortune.  The  colonists  met,  but  they  de- 
clined the  offer,  and  thus  the  king  failed  to  get  the  tobacco,  while 
the  colonists,  not  only  kept  what  they  had,  but  gained  a  repre- 
sentative government  besides.  They  at  once  followed  up  their 
advantage.* 

This  attempt  to  establish  a  monopoly  was,  for  some  time,  not 
altogether  abandoned  "^ ;  but  the  firm  attitude  of  the  planters,  and 
the  rapidly  thickening  crowd  of  events  at  home  finally  compelled 
its  relinquishment.  In  the  meantime,  the  Virginians  had  learned 
two  things  :  first,  that  their  productions  were  of  value  to  the 
crown  ;  and,  secondly,  that  they  occupied  a  position  sufficiently 
independent  to  enable  them  to  make  their  own  terms  in  any  bar- 
gain with  the  government.  That  they  did  not  forget  this  lesson 
was  clearly  shown  in  after  days,  when  they  came  to  make  a  truce 
with  the  Commonwealth,'  and  while  Charles  I.  sat  upon  the  throne, 
the  understanding  seems  clear,  that,  so  long  as  the  planters  made 
great  profits,  the  crown  might  impose  what  duties  it  liked  on  the 
staple  at  home. 

What  distinguishes  the  English  colonies  from  all  others  is  their 
institutional  character.  The  English,  or,  as  it  was  originally,  the 
Saxon  blood,  has  always  sought  and  found  its  natural  expression 
in  institutions — those  self-acting  means  by  which  the  social  forces 
of  free  peoples  express  themselves  ;  which  are  themselves  indepen- 
dent creations  endued  with  the  capacity  of  self-government  and 
the  tendency  to  self-development,  and  which,  having  frequently 

^  To  what  extent  the  Virginians  took  advantage  of  this  concession,  see  note  to 
chap,  vi,  Bancroft,  "  Hist.  U.  S.,"  vol.  i.,  where  a  list  of  assemblies  extending 
from  1630  to  1642,  sixteen  in  all,  has  been  extracted  from  Hening's  *'  Statutes 
at  Large"  ;  which  list  refutes,  too,  the  statement  of  Story,  "  Comm.  on  the 
Constitution,"  c.  2,  §  49,  that,  during  this  time,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
effort  made  to  convene  an  assembly.  In  1660,  representation  had  acquired 
such  force,  that  Berkeley,  the  governor,  who  had  just  taken  his  seat  as  such, 
said,  "  I  am  but  a  servant  of  the  assembly."     Smith's  "  Hist.  New  York,"  27. 

'^  See  "  A  Commission  Concerning  Tobacco,"  10  Car.  I,  June  19,  1634. 

^  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  Query  xiii  ;  Ilening,  I,  363,  et  seq,  j  Hazard,  I,  560, 
et  seq.  ;  Burk,  II,  85,  ei  seq. 


THE  INSTITUTIONAL  CHARACTER.  49 

the  power  of  self-production,  are,  thus  far  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race,  the  very  highest  forms  or  expressions  of  social  force. 

This  institutional  nature  is  the  tribal  characteristic,  and,  as  it 
has  always  distinguished  the  body  of  the  tribe,  so,  too,  it  invari- 
ably characterizes  the  offshoots  ;  and,  as  institutions  are  vital 
organizations  which  grow  by  their  own  inherent  force,  the  institu- 
tional nature  is,  therefore,  progressive.  Hence  it  is,  that  the 
English  colonies  have  never  stood  still,  but,  once  planted,  have 
grown  right  on,  adapting  themselves  to  the  conditions  of  soil,  cli- 
mate, and  circumstance,  and  each  developing  into  a  state,  pre- 
cisely as  its  parent  had  done  before  it.  The  colonies  of  other 
people  are  but  fragments  of  themselves  broken  off  and  set  into 
the  western  world,  as  a  piece  of  stone  is  set  in  mosaic.  They  toil 
and  they  spin  ;  but  they  do  not  grow.  They  stop  short  when 
the  conquest  or  the  settlement  is  terminated,  and  for  them  the 
law  of  development  seems  hardly  to  exist.  Not  so  with  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  :  their  colonists  bear  with  them  the  ark  which  con- 
tains self-development,  and  no  sooner  is  this  ark  set  down  than 
the  law  of  their  being  springs  into  action,  and,  like  those  organ- 
isms of  which  we  read,  that  a  member  straightway  begins  to  de- 
velop a  body  analogous  to  that  from  which  it  has  been  torn,  the 
little  group  at  once  proceeds  to  organize  its  social  forces,  to  root 
itself  in  the  soil,  to  draw  thence  its  sustenance,  to  acquire 
strength,  and  to  develop,  sometimes  rapidly,  sometimes  slowly, 
but  always  surely,  a  state,  in  principles,  modes  of  action,  polity, 
nature,  and  even  form,  like  that  from  which  it  sprung. 

No  more  forcible  illustration  of  this  institutional  development 
can  be  imagined,  than  that  which  the  English  colonies  in  Ameri- 
ca presented  ;  an  illustration  rendered  still  more  forcible  by  the 
contrast  it  offers  to  the  French  colonies  in  the  same  quarter.  We 
see  what  the  historic  growth  of  the  former  was  ;  but  where  was 
the  historic  growth  of  the  latter  ?  The  French  were  just  as  early 
on  the  ground  ;  they  displayed  as  great  personal  energy,  and  in 
one  respect  outstripped  their  neighbors,  for  they  had  pushed  their 
way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  before  the 
more  sluggish  English  had  crossed  the  Alleghenies.  At  this  day, 
we  know  little  more  of  the  general  topography  of  the  Mississippi 
valley  than  what  the  early  French  did.  They  were  brave — the 
plains  of  Abraham  and  the  grass-covered  lines  around  the  ruins 


50  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

of  Fort  Carillon  still  bear  silent  but  eloquent  testimony  to  that 
virtue.  But  that  is  all :  their  activity  was  individual,  not 
national ;  their  development  was  personal,  but  not  social.  While 
the  Frenchman's  canoe  was  pushing  its  way  into  waters  where  the 
Englishman  would  not  follow  for  a  century,  his  people  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  were  doing  nothing ;  yet,  France  was  dreaming  of 
empire  and  of  the  glory  that  was  to  follow  her  adventurers, 
while  the  whole  English  frontier  was  steadily  and  surely,  albeit 
slowly,  advancing.  The  French  settlements  of  Canada  never 
developed,  in  the  sense  felt  by  every  one  who  speaks  English. 
They  were  mere  pieces  of  Normandy  and  Brittany  tesselated 
in  American  wood,  and,  as  soon  as  they  were  once  fixed  in 
position,  they  were  the  same  that  they  are  to-day.  They  have 
not  changed.  Picturesque,  dreamy,  poetic  they  may  be,  with 
their  old  Norman  and  Breton  songs,  their  musical  tongue,  their 
seigniories,  and  their  quaint  villages,  each  grouped  around  a  glit- 
tering-roofed church  which  has  a  name  as  tuneful  as  its  own 
chimes,  but  they  have  not  advanced  an  inch,  they  have  not  pro- 
duced a  single  new  thing  for  the  good  of  the  human  race  or  of 
themselves  ;  they  stand  still,  and  they  survive  simply  by  the  suf- 
ferance of  the  rigorous  climate  which  envelopes  them,  and  under 
the  protection  of  the  tortoise  that  passed  them  in  the  race. 
Even  the  genius  of  Montcalm  could  not  save  them.  The  laws  of 
nature  would  have  prevailed  just  the  same  had  the  French  gained 
the  upper  hand,  and  the  French  in  America  display  to-day  a 
picture  of  what  French  America  would  have  been  had  Wolfe 
failed  to  take  Quebec. 

The  reason  of  this,  of  course,  lies  in  the  difference  of  race  ;  and 
that  difference  is  shown  in  the  contrast  which  the  institutional 
character  of  one  of  these  peoples  makes  with  the  uninstitutional 
character  of  the  other. 

It  would  be  as  easy  to  imagine  the  Anglican  tribe  without  the 
power  of  speech,  as  to  imagine  it  without  institutions  ;  for  these  are 
as  much  a  characteristic  of  the  tribe  as  that  is  of  the  human  race. 
First  conceived  and  born  in  the  forests  of  Germany,^  they  have 
made  the  Teutonic  race,  and  especially  the  English  branch  of  it, 
what  it  is,  no  matter  where  and  under  what  circumstances  it  has 

*  Montesquieu,  "  Esprit  des  Lois,"  1.  xi,  c.  vi :  "  Ce  beau  systeme  a  ete  trouve 
dans  les  bois."     Voltaire,  however,  doubted  this. 


FRENCH  COLONIES  NON-INSTITUTIONAL.  5 1 

been  placed.  Not  a  kingdom  rules  the  seas  ;  not  a  colony  plants 
itself  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  ;  not  a  State  knocks  for  ad- 
mission at  the  door  of  the  American  Union  ;  not  a  new  county, 
nor  so  much  as  a  township,  is  laid  off  from  an  old  one,  but  what 
the  fact  is  due  to  the  institutional  character  of  the  race.  In 
America,  where,  unrestricted  by  ancient  limitations,  the  growth 
of  institutions  has  been  prolific  beyond  measure,  the  exhibition  of 
institutional  development  has  lost  its  impressiveness  from  trite- 
ness, and  the  mind  turns  to  the  contemplation  of  the  subject  with 
much  the  same  feeling  that  it  would  have  if  called  upon  to  ob- 
serve the  familiar  organization  of  household  life.  It  would  be 
interesting,  but  it  would  not  have  novelty  to  increase  the  interest. 
With  the  French  it  was  different.  When  they  planted  a  colony, 
the  first  thing  it  did  was  to  make  itself  a  miniature  France.  It 
did  not  strike  out  for  itself,  and  leave  the  formation  of  its  char- 
acter to  time  and  circumstance.  It  did  not  even  rely  on  itself : 
it  depended  upon  the  military  under  whose  guns  it  had  landed, 
and  on  the  officials  of  the  bureaucracy  it  was  sure  to  bring  along. 
Its  sole  object  seemed  to  be  to  imitate  what  it  had  left  behind. 
No  institutions  grew  of  themselves  :  what  there  were  of  them  were 
like  posts  stuck  in  the  ground.  The  structure  of  an  English 
colony  resembles  that  of  English  society  ;  not  from  imitation,  but 
because,  in  obedience  to  the  same  laws  which  developed  the 
parent,  the  colony  acts  out,  of  itself  and  in  its  own  way,  the 
same  principles  to  the  same  end.  These  expressions  of  social 
force  are,  therefore,  one  in  nature  and  similar  in  form,  and  they 
would  characterize  the  offspring  were  the  parent  stock  to  be 
blotted  from  the  list  of  nations.  But  a  French  colony  does  not 
act  in  this  way  :  it  seems  to  look  upon  its  fate  as  that  of  exile,  of 
which  the  best  is  to  be  made,  and  solace  is  to  be  found  only  in 
adhering  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  model  of  social  life  it  left  be- 
hind. The  consequence  is,  that  there  is  no  self-dependence  in  a 
French  colony  ;  no  free,  vigorous  action,  no  life  ;  and  a  struct- 
ure so  hollow  needs  but  a  push  to  overturn  it.  Its  happiness  is 
complete  when  the  strong  arm  of  the  government  enforces  such  a 
sense  of  security  that  the  process  of  imitation  can  go  on  without 
interruption  ;  but  when  the  imitation  is  effected,  the  comparison 
it  presents  with  the  life  of  an  English  colony  may  be  described  as 
similar  to  that  existing  between  a  child  and  the  portrait  of  its 


52  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

father  :  both  resemble  the  person  ;  but  one  is  a  living  being,  and 
the  other  merely  a  likeness. 

The  reason,  then,  that  the  French  did  not  retain  their  American 
possessions,  but  departed  leaving  scarcely  a  trace  behind  them 
worthy  the  notice  of  the  political  observer,  is,  that  they  lacked 
those  institutions  which  take  root  and  grow  for  themselves,  even 
though  dropped  as  seeds  are  by  birds  in  their  flight.  Instead  of 
relying  on  the  inherent  vitality  of  their  people  to  secure  what  had 
been  acquired,  they  depended  only  on  the  force  of  arms.  So 
long,  therefore,  as  their  arms  were  successful,  so  long  did  they 
rest  secure  in  their  possessions  ;  but  when  disaster  overtook  their 
armaments,  the  prop  which  upheld  the  structure  was  knocked 
away,  and  the  whole  shell  fell  into  ruins.  In  no  instance  was 
this  so  forcibly  illustrated  as  by  the  issue  of  the  battle  fought 
under  the  walls  of  Quebec.  While  Montcalm  lived,  the  French 
occupation  lived  ;  but  when  he  fell,  the  whole  French  power  in 
America  east  of  the  Mississippi^  fell  with  him.  It  absolutely 
vanished  ;  and,  save  the  tongue,  the  religion,  and  those  few  insti- 
tutions which  are  common  to  all  peoples — for  there  is  no  civilized 
society  without  some  institutions, — it  left  not  a  vestige  behind. 
With  the  last  breath  of  the  French  commander,  the  power  of 
France  in  the  West  was  transferred  to  England  ;  the  colonists 
became  British  subjects,  and  the  French  settlements  were  re- 
stricted to  the  narrow  territory  they  still  occupy. 

Not  so  the  English,  whose  vitality  depended  upon  the  health 
of  institutions  and  not  upon  the  successes  of  arms.  Disaster 
hardened  them,  and  calamity  lent  force  to  their  development. 
Bringing  with  them  the  institutions  of  the  race,  they  grew  of  them- 
selves, and  it  is  a  significant  fact,  that  they  never  relied  on  the 
arms  of  the  mother-country  without  loss,  nor  on  their  own  with- 
out gain.'  Self-dependence  was  a  lesson  early  taught  and  soon 
learned.  The  colonies  were  young,  but  the  institutions  were  old, 
and  these  were  the  ravens  that  fed  them  in  the  wilderness. 

In  nothing  have  the  Europeans  more  persistently  misconceived 
the  character  of  American  institutions,  than  in  taking  it  for  granted, 
that,  because  the  country  is  "  new  "  so  are  the  institutions.  So 
far  from  it,  these  are  as  old  as  the  race  itself,  and  it  would  be  dif- 

'  Johnson  v.  M'Intosh,  8  Wheat.  543. 

'  On  the  one  side,  for  examples,  the  capture  of  Louisburg  and  the  never- 
ending  frontier  war  ;  on  the  other,  Braddock's  and  Abercrombie's  campaigns. 


DISPENSATION  OF  FRANCHISES.  53 

ficult  for  an  Englishman,  or  a  Teuton  of  any  tribe,  to  lay  his  finger 
on  one  of  our  institutions  which  did  not  come  out  of  the  woods  with 
the  race.  Even  in  those  which  may  be  called  "  new,"  the  germs 
can  be  discovered  among  those  of  the  early  English.  They  are 
"  new  "  only  because  ages  have  elapsed  since  the  occasion  has 
arisen  for  calling  them  into  action,  and,  unused  to  the  sight  of 
them,  the  European  naturally  regards  them  as  strange.  One  might 
as  well  assert  the  existence  of  a  new  language  from  the  fact  that 
the  country  is  new,  as,  from  the  same  fact,  to  assume  the  existence 
of  new  institutions.  America  is  young  in  years,  but  in  institutions 
it  is  old,  very  old. 

The  colonization  of  the  English  in  North  America  was  effected 
chiefly  under  the  House  of  Stuart.  These  monarchs,  at  once 
arbitrary  and  impecunious,  saw  in  the  boundless  plains  of  America 
and  in  the  tide  of  emigration  that  was  setting  in  thither,  relief 
from  two  evils  :  the  lack  of  money,  and  the  fanaticism  which, 
from  day  to  day,  was  becoming  more  and  more  threatening  to  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom  and  the  stability  of  the  throne.  On  one 
hand,  land  in  another  hemisphere  was  a  ready  substitute  for 
money  ;  and,  on  the  other,  what  could  be  better  adapted  for  the 
crazy  experiments  of  enthusiasts  than  remote  deserts,  or  what 
location  better  for  the  overstock  of  London  rufflers  than  that 
where  gold  might  perhaps  be  found,  and  where  tobacco  was  sure 
to  grow  ?  At  one  stroke  both  kingdom  and  exchequer  would  find 
relief.  As  men  are  lavish  with  what  is  not  immediately  before 
their  eyes,  and  with  what  is  apparently  exhaustless  in  resources, 
so  these  monarchs  were  prodigal  of  a  continent  which  lay  beyond 
the  ocean  out  of  sight.  What  mode  of  paying  an  old  debt  could 
be  easier  than  a  deed  of  land  in  the  Hesperides  ?  What  better 
way  of  getting  rid  of  the  pestering  claims  of  ancient  servants  than 
a  grant  of  franchises  which  could  be  effective  only  in  a  wilderness  ? 
It  is  this  which  accounts  for  the  profuse  dispensation  of  liberty 
beyond  the  seas,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  grudgingly  withheld 
at  home.  To  this  easy  disposition  of  giving  away  what  was  worth- 
less to  the  givers,  as  well  as  to  the  necessity  of  offering  induce- 
ments for  colonization,  is  to  be  ascribed  the  plantation  of  British 
colonies  in  America,  and  the  broadcast  scattering  of  franchises 
under  which  colonies  and  colonists  multiplied  as  reeds  by  the 


54  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

water  side.  The  heedlessness  which  bestowed  these  liberties  was 
succeeded  by  an  equally  beneficent  neglect,  under  which  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  race  developed  unnoticed  and  without  let  or 
hindrance  ;  and  when  at  last  avarice  disturbed  the  torpor  of  indif- 
ference, it  was  found  that  the  colonies  had  not  only  acquired 
strength,  but  had  concentrated  it,  and  that,  having  grown  to  man's 
estate  in  undisturbed  tranquillity,  as  far  as  the  mother-country 
was  concerned,  they  were  ready  and  able  to  assert  their  existence 
as  independent  states. 

The  great  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  English  colonies, 
from  which  springs  the  institutional  character  of  which  mention 
has  been  made,  is  that  which  distinguishes  the  English  themselves 
from  other  peoples — their  natural  predisposition  to  govern  them- 
selves. This  also  is  a  race  characteristic,  which  showed  itself  in 
the  earliest  history  of  Britain,  and  to  this  inherent  tribal  law  of 
self-government  is  due  its  character  as  a  representative  govern- 
ment, and,  consequently,  a  limited  monarchy,  and,  especially,  the 
formation  of  counties  and  their  division  into  parishes,  hundreds,  or 
townships.  Few  have  been  the  English-speaking  men,  since  the 
final  establishment  of  a  parliamentary  constitution,  who  have  gone 
down  to  the  grave  without  making  themselves  felt,  to  some  extent, 
in  the  government  of  their  land,  be  it  where  it  might,  or  who  have 
not  actually  taken  part  therein — if  not  in  the  government  of  the 
nation,  in  that  of  their  province  or  colony  ;  if  not  in  that,  then  in 
the  administration  of  county  affairs  ;  if  not  in  the  county,  then  in 
that  of  their  parish  or  hundred  :  perhaps  in  all.  No  matter  how 
often,  or  by  what  means,  the  race  has  been  pushed  from  its  moor- 
ings, it  has  always  returned  to  the  anchorage  of  self-government 
at  the  very  first  opportunity.  It  is  the  social  force  directly  op- 
posed to  the  centralization  of  the  Latin  or  Gallican  notions  of 
government.  This  latter  looks  on  government  as  paternal,  para- 
mount, and  as  acting  of  its  own  motion  ;  the  Englishman,  on  the 
contrary,  regards  it  as  vicarious,  delegated,  and  representative. 
One  considers  the  throne  as  the  source  of  power  ;  the  other,  as  the 
conduit  through  which  the  power  of  the  body  politic  is  conveyed 
to  the  object  to  be  acted  upon.  To  one,  the  monarch  is  the  abso- 
lute and  unaccountable  owner  ;  to  the  other,  he  is  a  trustee,  and, 
as  such,  accountable  for  his  exercise  of  the  power  entrusted. 


LOVE   OF   THE  SOIL,  55 

No  notions  of  government  can  be  wider  apart  than  those  held 
by  the  Latin  races  and  those  held  by  the  English.  With  the 
latter,  the  one  solitary  and  natural  idea  of  government  is  what  is 
known  as  self-government.  It  springs  from  the  love  of  the  soil, 
so  characteristic  of  the  tribe  ;  an  affection  which  makes  the  tres- 
passer on  one's  field  almost  as  great  a  wrong-doer  as  he  who  vio- 
lates the  sanctity  of  the  person/  The  race  has  always  given  the 
supremacy,  in  respect  of  property,  to  land,  and  has  always  girt  it 
about  with  favoring  laws  no  less  marked  than  are  the  hedges  and 
fences  that  surround  it  on  the  ground.  Where  this  legislative  ex- 
pression appears,  there  the  race  displays  its  natural  love  of  the  soil  ; 
where  it  does  not  appear,  there,  it  is  safe  to  say,  this  quality  of  the 
race  is  no  longer  uppermost,  but  has  declined,  or,  perhaps,  has 
never  existed  at  all.  No  more  significant  sign  of  the  decadence 
of  race  qualities  can  be  given,  than  where  the  courts,  who  utter 
the  voice  of  the  state,  enforce  the  doctrine  that  land  shall  be  as 
easily  transferable  as  personalty.  It  is  the  sacrifice  of  a  race 
characteristic  to  present  expediency,  and  if  any  thing  which  dis- 
turbs or  destroys  the  natural  action  of  the  race  is  a  wrong,  then 
this  doctrine  is  wrong  and  is  sure  to  end  in  disaster.  It  becomes 
a  precedent,  to  say  the  least,  for  further  destruction  of  race  charac- 
teristics, with  which  disappear  the  race  notions  of  free  government, 
and  anti-race  notions  of  despotic  rule  take  their  places  as  a  matter 
of  course. 

It  is  to  this  love  of  the  soil,  this  notion  of  personal  independence, 
and  to  the  sense  of  individual  power  which  one  has  when  standing 
in  his  own  fields  and  on  his  own  ground,  that  is  to  be  attributed 
that  freedom  of  action  which  is  the  true  source  of  the  institutions 
which  mark  the  race. 

The  colonists  brought  with  them  this  love  of  the  soil,  and  the 
natural  proclivity  to  self-government.  From  Virginia  to  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  no  sooner  was  the  land  occupied  than  it  was  laid  off 
in  counties,  and  in  hundreds,  or  townships.  The  very  first  thing 
the  settlers  did  anywhere,  was  to  betake  themselves  to  the  task  of 
governing  themselves  ;  and,  forthwith,  their  natural  institutions 
appear,  as  if  they  had  been  brought  over  in  boxes  which  were  the 
first  to  be  unpacked.  The  little  hives  bestir  themselves  at  once 
in  the  direction  of  social  organization,  and  one  invariable  feature 
*  Chitty  on  "  Pleiiding."    Tit.  Trespass. 


56  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

of  their  labors  is  the  provision  made  for  the  future  expansion  of 
society.  Before  the  dwellings  were  built  the  governments  were 
erected.  Perhaps,  like  the  dwellings,  they  were  but  temporary 
shelters,  to  last  only  until  houses  took  the  place  of  sheds  :  but 
there  they  were,  and  from  the  moment  they  appeared,  they,  and 
the  institutions  they  sheltered,  went  on  developing  without  a 
moment's  retrogression.  If  they  were  opposed,  they  were  as 
stubborn  as  the  rocks  ;  if  unopposed,  they  expanded  with  the 
growth  of  their  colonies.  Sometimes  these  governments  were  cut 
and  dried  in  the  London  office  of  "  the  Company  "  before  the 
colonists  started  ;  sometimes  they  were  outlined  in  their  charters 
by  the  imperial  government ;  and  yet  again,  as  in  the  cases  of 
Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  Rhode  Island,  they  were  the  results 
of  the  direct  action  of  the  proprietary  or  the  people.  But, 
whether  the  work  of  cabinets,  of  proprietaries,  of  companies,  or 
of  colonists,  sooner  or  later,  all  had  for  their  active,  vital,  con- 
trolling force,  without  which  they  would  have  been  as  nothing, 
the  people  themselves.  They  became,  thanks  to  the  remoteness 
which  thwarted  the  interference  of  the  home  government, 
and  to  the  indifference  of  that  government,  real  examples 
of  popular  sovereignty,  no  matter  what  might  be  the  terms 
of  the  charter,  patent,  or  commissions  of  the  governors.  They 
made  their  own  laws,  laid  their  own  taxes,  fought  their  own 
battles,  and,  in  all  respects,  were  their  own  men.  This  was  self- 
government,  local  self-government ;  for  each  colony  looked  out 
for  itself,  and  none  so  much  as  pretended  to  meddle  with  the 
affairs  of  another,  or  to  indulge  in  an  interference  which  was  sure 
to  be  sharply  resented.  Independent  of  each  other  and  of  the 
world,  v/ith  nothing  to  restrain  them  except  the  slight  tie  that 
bound  them  to  the  mother-country,  with  the  sense  of  power  in- 
herent in  freemen,  and  with  the  love  of  adventure  the  ocean  and 
the  wilderness  alike  fostered,  it  is  no  wonder  that  there  arose,  in 
the  course  of  time,  that  "  fierce  spirit  of  liberty,"  which  filled,  in 
such  large  measure,  the  observant  eye  of  Burke, — a  spirit  which 
grew  "  with  the  growth  of  the  people  in  the  colonies,  and  increased 
with  the  increase  of  their  wealth."  ' 

Foremost  among  the  incentives  of  that  fierce  spirit  of  liberty 
vas  the  contemptuous   regard  for  the  colonies   entertained  by  the 

*  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 


FIRST  NOTION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  5/ 

commercial  classes  of  England,  who  looked  upon  them  simply  as 
so  many  institutions  erected  for  the  especial  benefit  of  England ; 
as,  in  short,  so  many  sponges  to  be  squeezed.  These  classes  natu- 
rally had  great  influence  with  the  legislature  of  a  country  given 
over  to  thrift,  and  they  made  their  mark  from  time  to  time  on  the 
legislation,  which,  in  turn,  betrayed  this  notion.  As  these  acts  of 
Parliament  were  almost  invariably  encroachments  in  some  shape 
or  another  on  what  the  colonies  deemed  sacred  rights,  they  were 
promptly  resisted.  The  government,  doubtful  of  enforcing  suc- 
cess with  bodies  too  important  to  be  lost,  yet  not  of  too  great  im- 
portance to  be  imposed  upon  when  the  opportunity  offered,  would 
retire  from  the  position  adverse  to  colonial  interests  into  which 
the  greed  of  home  commerce  would  at  times  thrust  it,  and  thus, 
on  its  part,  did  its  share  in  familiarizing  the  colonists  with  the  be- 
lief that  all  that  was  necessary  to  make  the  government  back 
down  was  to  meet  it  with  a  bold  front.  This  notion,  which,  it 
must  be  said,  the  facts  warranted  the  colonists  in  adopting,  was 
the  first  step  on  the  road  to  independence  ;  for  those  who  saw 
that  the  colonies  had  sunk  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen  to  being 
mere  commercial  appendages  to  the  empire,  instead  of  being  liv- 
ing parts  and  members  of  it,  soon  entertained  the  still  further  ad- 
vanced idea,  that,  if  the  colonies  were  more  important  to  England 
than  England  was  to  tlie  colonies,  they  might  be  better  off  were 
they  to  cease  being  mere  tributaries  or  feeders  to  the  trade  of 
London  and  Bristol.  Hence  arose  the  last  notion  of  the  series, 
that  of  independence,  which,  beaten  down  as  fast  as  it  raised  its 
head,  by  the  loyalty  that  bound  the  American  heart  to  England, 
never  ceased  its  struggles  until  it  had  asserted  its  existence,  de- 
stroyed the  bond  of  allegiance,  and,  carrying  along  with  it  the 
now  enthusiastic  masses  of  the  colonies,  had  torn  from  the  empire 
the  best  part  of  its  continental  possessions,  and  those,  too,  which 
were  biggest  with  the  promise  of  the  future. 

If  we  look  at  the  career  of  this  "fierce  spirit  of  liberty,"  and 
observe  its  character,  we  shall  not  be  astonished  that  it  ends  in  in- 
dependence of  the  mother-country.  Little  else,  indeed,  could  be 
expected,  if,  from  the  plan  of  historical  development,  which,  be- 
fore the  advent  of  the  English  in  America  had  marked  the  differ- 
ent migrations  of  the  race,  inferences  could  be  drawn  upon  which 
to  forecast   the  colonial  future.      The  colonists  were  of  a  people 


58  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

whose  whole  career  had  been  characterized  by  an  insatiable  crav- 
ing after  local  self-government.  This  kind  of  government  they 
brought  along  with  them,  and  they  were  enjoying  it  to  a  much 
greater  extent  where  they  were  than  they  could  have  done  had 
they  remained  in  England.  The  appetite  for  personal  influence 
in  the  administration  grew  by  what  it  fed  upon,  and  caused  the 
colonists,  when  the  pleasure  of  its  enjoyment  was  interrupted,  not 
only  to  be  galled  in  the  most  sensitive  part  of  their  nature,  but  to 
regard  the  effort  to  curtail  their  liberties  as  downright  robbery  of 
that  self-government  to  which  they  had  long  before  acquired  the 
actual  right  of  possession.  Had  the  policy  of  George  III.  been 
enforced  by  the  house  of  Stuart,  it  is  hardly  probable  that  there 
would  have  been  any  thing  more  than  a  murmur.  Men  had  not 
yet  grown  up  to  liberty  and  the  desire  for  independence,  but  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  spirit  of  liberty  was 
already  more  fierce,  perhaps,  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  and  it 
stood  ready,  if  balked  in  its  course,  to  hew  its  way  with  the  sword 
to  the  independence  which  suffered  no  questioning.  Hence  we 
see,  that,  at  the  bottom  of  this  disruption,  lay  the  determination  to 
keep  inviolate  the  local  self-government,  to  which,  as  living  mem- 
bers of  their  race,  they  had  the  birthright,  and  of  which  they  had 
long  had  actual  possession.  This  it  was  that  rode  upon  the 
storm. 

The  forms  of  government  in  the  colonies  having  been  considered, 
and  the  effects  of  descent  and  remoteness  of  situation  noticed,  we 
proceed  with  the  analysis  as  given  by  Mr.  Burke. 


CHAPTER    III. 
IV. — Religion  in  the  Northern  Provinces, 

PROCEEDING  to  the  next  cause  mentioned  by  Mr.  Burke 
which  served  to  make  liberty  in  the  colonies  fierce,  namely, 
Religion  in  the  Northern  Provinces,  we  shall  see  that  its  striking 
feature  was  the  principle  of  toleration,  or,  to  use  the  broader  ex- 
pression, freedom  of  conscience  ;  and  if  we  are  to  point  out 
the  localities  where  this  principle  appeared  in  its  greatest  vigor, 
we  must  name,  above  all  other  territories,  Maryland,  Pennsyl- 
vania, West  Jersey,  and  Rhode  Island. 

Freedom  in  one  thing  is  the  natural  progenitor  and  support  of 
freedom  in  another,  and  it  needs  no  argument  to  show  that  free- 
dom of  conscience  was  the  natural  forerunner  and  ally  of  freedom 
of  the  citizen.  Inasmuch  as  free  inquiry  passed  from  religious 
to  secular  subjects  in  the  colonies,  just  as  it  did  in  England, 
though  without  revolution  and  civil  commotion,  an  inquiry  into 
the  causes  of  our  political  freedom  must  necessarily  embrace  the 
contemplation  of  what  free  inquiry  did  in  America  when  it 
turned  from  religion  to  politics. 

At  the  first  glance,  the  colonies  do  not  appear  to  be  a  chosen 
abiding-place  of  free  inquiry  in  religious  matters.  Their  founda- 
tions were  laid  when  intolerance  was  still  a  sacred  principle,  and 
their  structure  betrays  the  characteristics  of  the  age  in  which  they 
rose.  But,  though  intolerance  came  with  the  early  colonists,  it 
was  the  only  thing  they  brought  with  them  which  did  not  display 
enduring  vitality.  Intolerance — practical,  physical  intolerance — 
was  never  more  determinedly  enforced  than  in  the  settlements 
around  Massachusetts  Bay  ;  yet,  before  one  generation  had  passed 
away,  we  behold,  in  the  settlement  of  Rhode  Island  by  men  of 
Massachusetts,  the  first  example  known  to  the  world  of  a  com- 

59 


6o  CONSTITUriONAL  LIBERTY. 

monwealth  founded  on  toleration  as  a  principle  of  political  con- 
stitution. Intolerance,  too,  in  the  shape  of  a  rigid  establishment, 
was  a  characteristic  of  Virginia,  and  one  which  she  hugged  to  her 
bosom  with  nervous  tenacity ;  yet  we  see  arise  alongside  of  her 
the  commonwealth  of  Maryland,  which  was  the  first  to  possess  a 
charter  that  guaranteed  freedom  of  conscience.  When  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  her  turn,  took  her  place  as  a  living  expression  and  asser- 
tion of  this  great  doctrine,  the  whole  aspect  of  the  colonies  was 
changed.  Toleration  seemed  the  rightful  lord,  while  intolerance 
wore  the  air  of  an  intruder. 

To  a  right  knowledge  of  those  times,  it  must  be  clearly  under- 
stood, that  dissent^  (which  involved  the  notion  of  separation  from 
the  Established  Church),  was  a  thing  regarded  by  every  one  as 
heretical,  and  that  the  state  was  the  natural  agent  of  its  repres- 
sion. Thus,  on  the  revolt  of  Henry  the  Eighth  from  the  Papacy, 
while  the  mass  of  Englishmen  sustained  and  supported  the  king 
in  breaking  down  the  old  religion,  it  would  have  been,  and  was, 
regarded  on  all  sides  as  the  rankest  heresy,  if  not  treason,  to  deny 
the  king's  right  and  duty  to  impose  a  new  religion  on  the  coun- 
try and  to  maintain  it  at  all  hazards.  In  their  eyes  this  duty  of 
the  state  was  not  in  the  least  impugned  by  Henry's  revolt.  That 
meant  merely  independence  of  a  foreign  religion  ;  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  impose  a  home  religion,  and  the  duty  of  the  subject  to 
maintain  and  obey  it,  were  none  the  less.  There  were  few  notions 
of  government — and  a  state  religion  was  part  and  parcel  of  the 
government — so  stubbornly  maintained  as  that  one.  This  is 
shown  with  great  clearness  by  the  history  of  the  times.  When 
England  broke  from  Rome,  no  one  denied  the  right  of  the  state 
to  impose  upon  the  land  the  Established  Church  ;  when  the  mass 
of  the  Puritans  broke  from  the  Established  Church,  no  one  but 
the  handful  of  Brownists  denied  the  right  of  the  state  to  impose 
the  Presbyterian  establishment,  did  the  realm  so  desire  it ;  when 
the  Independents  broke  from  the  Presbyterians,  eight  out  of  ten 
Englishmen  were  shocked  beyond  measure,  that  doctrines  should 
be  recognized  which  practically  left  the  country  without  a  state 
religion.  It  is  safe  to  say,  that,  in  those  times,  ninety  out  of  a 
hundred  Englishmen  were  born,  lived,  and  went  to  their  graves 
with  the  conviction  that  it  was  the  natural  duty  of  the  state  to  ex- 
tirpate heresy  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  it  was  the  natural  duty  of 


THE   SUBORDINATION  OF   STATE    TO   CHURCH.         6 1 

the  civil  power  to  expel  from  the  body  politic  those  who  did  not 
conform  to  the  national  religion,  be  it  what  it  might.  So  deeply 
was  this  notion  rooted,  and  so  effective  an  element  was  it  in  all 
ideas  of  government,  that  it  was  a  long  time  before  even  the  In- 
dependents themselves  could  be  brought,  as  a  body,  to  acknowledge 
the  contrary.  The  Brownists,  indeed,  openly  called  themselves 
Separatists,  and  took  the  position  that  any  religious  establishment 
was  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God'  ;  it  was  they  who  colonized 
Massachusetts  ;  yet  it  was  they  who,  as  Independents  or  Congre- 
gationalists,  withheld  their  censure  at  the  expulsion  of  Roger 
Williams  from,  not  only  their  communion,  but  their  territory,  for 
denying  the  authori4:y  of  their  establishment,  for  such  it  was  ;  for 
asserting  that  thought  should  be  as  free  in  religious  as  in  secular 
matters  ;  that  the  Sunday  laws  were  an  abomination  to  the  Lord; 
and  that  the  magistrate  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  prom- 
ulgation of  the  faith,  the  discipline  of  the  church,  or  the  extirpa- 
tion of  heresy.  He  was  worthy  of  banishment,  they  said,  who 
maintained  that  ''  the  civil  magistrate  might  not  intermeddle  even 
to  stop  a  church  from  apostacy  and  heresy."  "^  For  asserting  the 
right  of  free  thought  and  free  speech  he  was  banished.  Those  who 
banished  him  acted  according  to  their  lights.  They  were  born 
and  bred  in  these  notions,  and  were  the  mere  agents  of  a  tyranny 
which,  at  that  time,  was  natural  to  all,  was  obeyed  by  all,  and  was 
enforced  by  all,  except  the  great  reformer  himself  and  a  few  like 
unto  him.  If  such  were  the  ideas  of  the  rightfulness  of  secular 
agency  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  among  those  who  sought  the  wilds 
of  America  rather  than  bow  the  knee  to  Baal,  how  much  more  natu- 
ral and  forcible  must  they  have  been  among  those  early  English 
Puritans,  to  whom  the  very  mention  of  reform  smacked  of  heresy, 
and  on  whose  minds  dissent  had  not  yet  dawned.  The  religion  of 
the  land  might  be  changed  a  hundred  times,  but,  then,  whatever 
the  changes,  all  were  alike  bound  by  them,  and  one  doctrine,  one 
discipline,  one  religion  in  substance  and  in  ceremony,  could  alone 
be  tolerated."    This  was  intolerance,  pure  and  simple,  but  in  those 

*  But  Brown  himself  relapsed,  and  accepted  a  living  in  the  Established 
Church. 

'  According  to  the  citations  of  Dexter  in  "As  to  Roger  Williams,"  Brewster, 
and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  at  Plymouth,  did  any  thing  but 
remonstrate  at  this  action  of  the  Puritan  churches. 

'Barlow's  "Sum  and  Substance  of  the  Conference  at  Hampton  Court,"  71  ; 
Harrington's  "  Nugse  Antiquae,"  I,  180.  et  seq.  ;  Hallam,  I,  404. 


62  CONSTJrUTIOXAL   LIBERTY. 

days  intolerance  was  a  fundamental  maxim  of  all  government. 
Personal  persecution  is  not  the  only  test  of  intolerance,  but  the 
true  test  is  the  question,  Was  the  civil  power  relied  upon  by  the 
churchy  and  recogtiized  by  the  people^  as  the  natural  ally  and  agent 
of  the  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  prescription  of  faith^  the  control  of 
religious  opinion,  and  the  extirpation  of  heresy  ?  If  the  answer  is 
yes,  then  intolerance  was  a  controlling  maxim  of  government ;  if 
no,  then  toleration  was.  In  those  times  the  answer  would  invari- 
ably have  been  in  the  affirmative. 

Looking,  then,  at  the  times  in  which  the  colonies  were  founded, 
it  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  we  did  not  find  intolerance  among 
the  recognized  principles  of  government  brought  over  by  the  early 
colonists  ;  but  knowing  what  we  now  do  of  the  men  that  brought 
these  principles,  and  of  the  circumstances  that  effected  their  de- 
velopment, it  would  be  stranger  if  we  found  intolerance  display 
life  and  vigor.  Acccordingly  we  look  in  vain  for  the  evidences  of 
a  lasting  vitality.  The  intolerance  of  the  New  England  Puritans 
at  last  spent  its  force,  and  sunk  down  into  dead  ashes  never  to  be 
revived  ;  the  intolerance  of  the  Establishment  never  so  much  as 
called  upon  the  state  to  prescribe  a  single  article  of  belief,  to 
regulate  a  single  doctrine,  or  to  extirpate  a  single  heresy, — it  was 
a  legal  fiction.  Intolerance  had,  however,  an  existence  which 
might  have  become  life,  had  not  the  timely  arrival  of  Pennsylvania 
upon  the  field  forever  turned  the  day  against  her,  and  established 
as  the  controlling  force  of  the  American  people  the  common  prin- 
ciple of  George  Calvert,  Roger  Williams,  and  William  Penn.  The 
career  of  intolerance  in  this  country  may  be  briefly  described,  so 
far  as  the  Church  of  England  is  concerned,  as  decorous,  harmless, 
and  confined  to  the  mere  assertion  of  legal  existence  ;  outside  of 
the  Establishment,  its  action  was  sporadic,  spasmodic,  and  indica- 
tive of  the  violence  into  which  waning  forces  sometimes  concen- 
trate all  their  power. 

Though,  as  has  been  said,  the  colonists  brought  with  them  in- 
tolerance, there  are  two  notable  exceptions  to  this  statement : 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania.  These  colonies  secured  to  them- 
selves freedom  of  conscience  before  they  ever  left  England,  one 
by  direct  grant  and  the  other  by  implication  ;  Lord  Baltimore's 
colonists,  indeed,  making  its  possession  a  condition  preliminary  to 
their  departure,  and  a  part  of  the  contract  under  which  they  were 


QUAKERISM.  63 

to  extend  the  dominions  of  the  crown  in  America.  Such  marked 
exceptions  peremptorily  arrest  the  eye,  and  the  spectacle  of  the 
House  of  Stuart  establishing  and  guaranteeing  under  the  great 
seal  freedom  of  conscience  in  one  of  its  dominions,  directs  our  ob- 
servation upon  the  Maryland  charter  and  the  circumstances  which 
called  it  into  being. 

But,  before  regarding  the  relations  in  which  the  credulity  of 
Maryland  stood  toward  freedom  of  conscience,  let  us  first  observe 
the  effect  upon  its  development  produced  by  the  mysticism  of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  rationalism  of  Rhode  Island. 

Quakerism. 

The  world  is  as  much  indebted  to  the  mysticism  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  West  Jersey  for  the  assertion  of  freedom  of  conscience 
as  a  principle  of  political  constitution,  as  it  is  to  the  unquestion- 
ing belief  of  Maryland,  and  the  inquisitive  rationalism  of  Rhode 
Island.  What  these  planted,  that  saved ;  and,  as  Quakerism 
affords  the  latest  and  most  complete  development  known  to  the 
colonies  of  the  union  of  freedom  of  conscience  and  state,  instead 
of  the  union  of  church  and  state,  we  shall  now  turn  to  its  examina- 
tion. 

While  the  rising  Independency  of  England,  which  had  in- 
scribed on  its  banner  the  device  of  free  religion,  was  in  the  act  of 
overthrowing  intolerance  in  the  persons  of  the  Presbyterians,  the 
enthusiastic  nature  of  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  was  pushing  his  agonizing  reflections  and  self-conviction 
toward  a  mysticism  which,  though  it  has  failed  to  convert  man- 
kind, has  indelibly  stamped  its  mark  upon  the  world.  Quakerism, 
now  a  mere  shell,  and  with  hardly  the  appearance  of  life  stirring 
in  the  void,  was  in  its  day  one  of  the  forces  which  deeply  im- 
pressed American  character  ;  or,  to  speak  with  accuracy,  its  ap- 
pearance at  the  time  it  made  its  advent,  and  its  choice  of  the 
middle  colonies  as  its  abiding  place,  were  events  most  fortunate 
for  the  establishment  of  freedom  of  conscience  in  America.  Its 
coming  unquestionably  lent  strength  to  a  hard-pressed  cause,  and 
perhaps  preserved  it  from  total  ruin. 

It  is  needless  to  recount  the  rise  of  a  sect,  which  demonstrates, 
for  the  hundredth  time,  that  intellectual  foresight,  enthusiasm, 
tenacity  of  purpose,  and  fidelity  to  a  noble  cause,  are  qualities  not 


64  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

confined  to  the  learned  and  powerful  only  of  either  a  democracy 
or  aristocracy.  This  sect  was  plebeian  in  character/  and,  in  its 
days  of  proselytism,  fanatical  ;  yet  it  comprehended  with  re- 
markable clearness  the  virtue  and  beneficence  of  freedom  of 
conscience,  and  clung  to  it  as  a  vital  social  element  with  heroic 
tenacity.  It  was  simply  one  of  the  innumerable  forms  of  mysti- 
cism, which,  for  the  first  time  since  the  days  of  Tutian,  the  En- 
cratites,  the  Gnostics,  the  Nicolaitic  heresy,  and  the  Scholastics, 
was  organized  into  a  permanent  and  proselytizing  sect.  Its  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  is,  that  it  discards  the  Scriptures  as  the 
one  source  of  spiritual  light,  and  refers  the  individual  for  illumina- 
tion to  his  conscience,  wherein  exists  what  is  styled  the  Inner 
Light.  "  Oh,  no,"  cried  back  Fox  to  the  preacher  who  had  taken 
for  his  text  the  words,  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy y 
"  Oh,  no  !  it  is  not  the  Scriptures,  it  is  the  Spirit." '  Chilling- 
worth  had  not  so  ruthlessly  swept  away  authority.  This  placing 
the  well-being  of  man  in  his  conscience  only,  and  under  the 
guardianship  of  the  divine  inspiration  that  illumined  it,  of 
course  presupposed  that  the  conscience  should  be  entirely  free, 
and  thus  the  disciple  of  Fox,  at  the  outset,  demanded  freedom  of 
conscience.  The  constant  standard  of  truth  and  goodness, 
says  William  Penn,  is  God  in  the  conscience,  and  liberty  of  con- 
science is,  therefore,  the  most  sacred  right,  and  the  only  avenue 
to  religion.  To  restrain  it,  is  to  invade  the  divine  prerogative  ; 
to  direct  it,  is  to  interfere  between  the  Creator  and  the  creature.^ 

This  sect  rose  rapidly  to  its  zenith,  under  the  craving  for  new 
religions  to  which  the  souls  of  those  times  were  peculiarly  sub- 
ject, and  under  the  attraction  which  the  novelty  of  their  doctrines 
excited.  These  doctrines  were  all  of  the  essence  of  passiveness, 
and  they  were  supplemented  by  certain  peculiarities  of  address, 
garb,  and  conversation,  by  which  the  eye  and  ear  could  distinguish 
that  they  who  affected   them  were   separate   and   apart  from  the 

*  '•  I  had  the  curiosity  to  visit  some  Quakers  here  [Ipswich]  in  prison  ;  a  new 
phanatic  sect,  of  dangerous  principles,  who  shew  no  respect  to  any  man,  magis- 
trate, or  other,  and  seeme  a  melancholy,  proud  sort  of  people,  and  exceedingly 
ignorant." — Evelyn's  "  Diary,"  July  8,  1656. 

'  Barclay  says,  the  Scriptures  are  a  declaration  of  the  fountain,  and  not  the 
fountain  itself — a  simile  used  likewise  by  Elias  Hicks,  a  century  and  a  half 
later,  to  illustrate  the  same  thing.  "  Letters,"  228.  And  see  Gurney's  "  Dis- 
tinguishing Views  and  Practices  of  the  Society  of  Friends,"  58,  59,  76,  78. 

3"  Penn's  Works,"  ii,  i,  2,  133. 


QUAKERISM  PRESUPPOSES  FREEDOM  OF  CONSCIENCE,     65 

world.  The  Quakers  attempted,  indeed,  the  hopeless  task  of 
uniting  mysticism  in  spiritual  life  with  formality  in  daily  life. 
The  attempt  failed,  and,  as  a  sure  result  of  time  and  human 
nature,  the  latter  had  so  far  absorbed  the  former,  that,  in  our 
own  century,  when  Elias  Hicks  sought  to  restore  Quakerism  to 
the  point  at  which  these  two  constituents  had  diverged,  his  op- 
ponents successfully  claimed  and  have  ever  since  maintained 
the  appellation  of  ''orthodox,"  while  his  followers  have  had  to 
rest  content  with  the  name,  hitherto  unknown  in  the  sect,  of 
Hicksites. 

The  history  of  all  religions  displays  an  invariable  yearning  after 
something  which  cannot  be  defined,  but  which,  for  want  of  a 
better  term,  is  universally  recognized  under  the  name  of  inspira- 
tion ;  and  of  this  yearning  there  is  no  more  remarkable  instance 
than  that  presented  in  the  spiritual  tribulations  of  George  Fox, 
and  the  tacit  submission  of  his  followers.  Rationalism  of  itself 
turned  out  to  be  inadequate  ;  formality  in  social  life,  like  mere 
formality  in  spiritual  life,  proved  to  be  dead :  both  together  were 
but  vanity.  Something  more  was  needed  than  the  overthrow  of 
the  exclusive  authority  of  the  Scriptures  :  the  great  want  became 
intolerable,  and,  rushing  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread,  the  Quaker 
rejected  as  authoritative  what  other  men  called  inspired,  and 
sought  his  revelation  directly  from  God  himself.  He  delivered 
himself  over  to  an  existence  absolutely  spiritual ;  he  looked  at 
religion  through  the  end  of  the  glass  other  than  that  of  the  ration- 
alist, and,  ignoring  the  needs  of  the  intellect  as  this  one  does  of 
the  emotions,  he  erred  equally  with  him  in  discarding  the  com- 
posite nature  of  man,  and  with  him  inflicted  injury  upon  a  relig- 
ion which  covers  the  whole  of  man  as  with  a  garment.  The 
intellect  ignored,  the  emotions  disdained,  and  formality  having 
proved  a  badge  indicating  nothing,  on  what  had  the  follower  of 
Fox  now  to  rest  his  feet  ?  On  nothing  :  he  ha  d  placed  himself 
outside  the  world  designed  for  men.  He  was  free  to  exercise  his 
powers,  but  on  what  could  he  direct  them  except  himself  ?  Free- 
dom was  indeed  his,  absolute  freedom  ;  but  it  was  the  freedom  of 
a  void. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  law  which  directs  the  wandering 
course  of  bodies  that,  uncontrolled  by  judgment  and  unsteadied 
by  system,  would  seek  the  sun,  exerted  its  inexorable  force,  and 


66  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

Quakerism,  having  rushed  to  its  perihelion,  obeyed  the  powers  it 
had  defied,  and  was  soon  lost  in  the  outer  darkness.  It  did  what 
the  spiritual  part  of  man,  unbalanced  by  his  physical,  his  emo- 
tional, and  his  intellectual  nature,  has  always  done,  when  left  to 
itself :  it  ran  into  mere  mysticism.  From  the  courses  of  the 
diverse  societies  of  mystics  which,  from  time  to  time,  had  risen 
and  disappeared,  its  orbit  might  have  been  calculated  with  some- 
thing like  precision.  Roger  Williams  seems  to  have  had  some 
notion  of  doing  so.  Be  that  as  it  may,  in  our  day  Quakerism 
appears  as  a  star  of  exceedingly  small  magnitude.  In  fact,  as  a 
religious,  moral,  or  social  force,  Quakerism,  in  the  land  where  its 
greatest  strength  lay,  America,  had,  even  prior  to  the  Revolution, 
outlived  its  day  and  spent  its  force.  It  is,  however,  only  with  its 
relations  to  freedom  of  conscience  that  we  are  called  upon  to 
notice  it,  and  to  those  relations  and  the  effect  they  produced  on 
our  character  as  a  people,  we  shall  now  turn. 

For  the  same  reason  that  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  Brownists, 
and  the  Puritans  crossed  the  Atlantic,  came  those  dissenters  from 
dissent,  the  Quakers.  In  England,  they  had  been  fined,  whipt, 
pilloried,  imprisoned,  and  executed.  In  New  England,  the  same 
cup  of  bitterness  had  been  presented  to  them,  and  the  law  was 
especially  directed  against  a  sect  that  was  deemed  peculiarly 
"  accursed  "  ;  except  in  Rhode  Island,  where,  let  it  be  noted,  in 
strict  adherence  to  the  principles  of  its  founder,  they  had  been 
met  by  only  the  natural  antagonist  of  strange  doctrines — discus- 
sion. Roger  Williams  himself  had  opened  his  batteries  upon 
them  in  a  work  entitled,  "  George  Fox,  Digged  out  of  his  Bur- 
rowe,"  and  though  no  persecution  awaited  them,  and  they  'could 
live  there,  if  so  minded,  in  harmony  with  God  and  man,  yet  little 
sympathy  could  be  looked  for,  and  it  was  evident,  that,  the  ground 
being  already  occupied,  the  experiment  of  planting  their  principles 
in  that  soil  would  not  be  a  work  of  great  promise.  The  colony  of 
New  Amsterdam  having  been  but  lately  transferred  to  the  Eng- 
lish rule  under  the  name  of  New  York,  they  would  have  been 
ground  to  dust  between  the  upper  millstone  of  the  new  Establish- 
ment and  the  lower  one  of  the  old  Dutch  Reformed  Church '  : 

*  As  late  as  1774,  John  Adams,  then  visiting  New  York,  says  in  his  Diary: 
"  Mr.  Livingston  *  *  *  says,  they  have  never  been  able  to  obtain  a  charter 
for  their  burying-ground,  or  the  ground  on  which  their  Presbyterian  church 


QUAKERISM  SEEKS   THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES.  6/ 

and  the  Swedish  settlements  on  the  Delaware  having,  likewise, 
yielded  to  England,  a  similar  fate  would  have  awaited  them  there.* 
Virginia  was  out  of  the  question,'  for  nowhere  in  America  was  the 
Church  Establishment  so  rigorously  maintained  as  an  exclusive 
element  of  political  constitution  ;  and  North  Carolina,  where  they 

stands.  They  have  solicited  their  Governors,  and  have  solicited  at  home  with- 
out success." 

In  fact,  New  York,  always  intolerant,  was  more  so  than  ever  after  the  Eng- 
lish occupation  in  1664.  "  In  an  act  passed  in  the  beginning  of  the  last  cen- 
tury," says  Story,  "  Constitution,"  i,  ch.  x,  §  114,  "  it  was  declared  that  every 
Jesuit  and  Popish  priest  who  should  continue  in  the  colony  after  a  given  day, 
should  be  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment ;  and  if  he  broke  prison  or 
escaped,  and  was  retaken,  he  was  to  be  put  to  death"  Half  a  century  after- 
ward, one  of  her  historians.  Smith,  warmly  praises  this  disgraceful  enactment, 
and  as  late  as  1777,  the  constitution  was  intended  to  exclude  Romanists. 

^  During  the  Swedish  supremacy,  the  worship  of  God  was  to  be  according  to 
the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  the  Council  of  Upsal,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Swedish  church,  tliough  "  the  pretended  reformed  religion  "  might  be  allowed, 
provided  its  adherents  abstained  from  dispute,  scandal,  and  abuse."  "Instruc- 
tions to  Gov.  Printz  ;  Privileges  granted  to  the  Colony."  Hazard.  "Ann. 
PennsyL,"  53,  67. 

"  "  The  first  settlers  in  this  country  [Virginia]  were  emigrants  from  England, 
of  the  English  church,  just  at  a  point  of  time  when  it  was  flushed  with  complete 
victory  over  the  religions  of  all  other  persuasions.  Possessed,  as  they  became, 
of  the  powers  of  making,  administering,  and  executing  the  laws,  they  showed 
equal  intolerance  in  this  country  with  their  Presbyterian  [Puritan  ?]  brethren, 
who  had  emigrated  to  the  northern  government.  The  poor  Quakers  were  flying 
from  persecution  in  England.  They  cast  their  eyes  on  these  new  countries  as 
asylums  of  civil  and  religious  freedom  ;  but  they  found  them  free  only  for  the 
reigning  sect.  Several  Acts  of  the  Virginia  Assembly  of  1659,  1662,  and  1693, 
had  made  it  penal  in  parents  to  refuse  to  have  their  children  baptized  ;  had 
prohibited  the  unlawful  assembling  of  Quakers  ;  had  made  it  penal  for  any 
master  of  a  vessel  to  bring  a  Quaker  into  the  State  ;  had  ordered  those  already 
here,  and  such  as  should  come  thereafter,  to  be  imprisoned  till  they  should  ab- 
jure the  country  ;  provided  a  milder  punishment  for  their  first  and  second 
return,  but  death  for  their  third  ;  had  inhibited  all  persons  from  suffering  their 
meetings  in  and  near  their  houses,  entertaining  them  individually,  or  disposing 
of  books  which  supported  their  tenets.  *  *  *  At  the  common  law,  heresy 
was  a  capital  offence,  punishable  by  burning.  Its  definition  was  left  to  the 
ecclesiastical  judges.before  whom  the  conviction  was,  till  the  statute  of  i  El.  c.  i, 
circumscribed  it,  by  declaring  that  nothing  should  be  deemed  heresy  but  what 
had  been  so  determined  by  authority  of  the  canonical  Scriptures,  or  by  one  of 
the  four  first  general  councils,  or  by  other  council,  having  for  the  grounds  of 
their  declaration  the  express  and  plain  words  of  the  Scriptures.  *  *  *  gy 
our  own  Act  of  Assembly  of  1705,  c.  30,  if  a  person  brought  up  in  the  Christian 
religion  denies  the  being  of  a  God,  or  the  Trinity,  or  asserts  there  are  more 
gods  than  one,  or  denies  the  Christian  religion  to  be  true,  or  the  Scriptures  to 
be  of  divine  authority,  he  is  punishable  on  the  first  offence  by  incapacity  to  hold 
any  office  or  employment  ecclesiastical,  civil,  or  military  ;  on  the  second  by  dis- 
ability to  sue,  to  take  any  gift  or  legacy,  to  be  guardian,  executor,  or  adminis- 
trator, and  by  three  years'  imprisonment  without  bail.  A  father's  right  to  the 
custody  of  his  own  children  being  founded  on  his  right  of  guardianship,  this 
being  taken  away,  they  may  of  course  be  severed  from  him,  and  put  by  the 
authority  of  a  court  into  more  orthodox  hands."  Thomas  Jefferson,  in 
"  Notes  on  Virginia." 


68  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

would,  doubtless,  have  been  hospitably  received,  was  too  far  south 
for  the  inclination  of  the  mass  of  them.  They  were,  therefore, 
happily  directed  to  the  very  part  of  the  country,  where,  from  the 
force  of  locality  alone,  the  good  example  of  their  frugal  and  sober 
lives  would  be  most  apparent,  and  where  their  influence,  exerted 
in  behalf  of  freedom  of  conscience,  would  be  of  most  avail.  For- 
tunately, this  did  not  take  place  until  their  demeanor  had  lost  the 
peculiarities  which  had  rendered  them  so  offensive  in  their  earliest 
days,  nor  until  good  sense,  supported  by  self-control,  had  resumed 
its  sway  over  them.  Accordingly,  they  turned  their  faces  toward 
what  was  afterward  New  Jersey,  and,  later  still,  when  the  Swedes 
had  been  rendered  powerless  to  oppose  them,  to  what  is  now 
Pennsylvania. 

Their  advent  was  most  propitious  for  the  cause  of  freedom  of 
conscience.  Massachusetts  had  intensified  her  intolerance  by 
adopting  a  censorship  of  the  press ;  an  innovation  which  derives 
its  importance  rather  as  an  evidence  of  the  spirit  pervading  the 
colony  than  from  any  practical  result.  In  Virginia,  where  intol- 
erance had  entrenched  herself,  the  forces  of  rationalism  and  mys- 
ticism would  have  had  a  weary  and  profitless  contest.  In 
Maryland,  the  Revolution  had  been  felt,  and  the  hands  of  the 
northern  Puritans  who  had  made  their  way  into  her  bounds 
having  been  strengthened  as  those  of  the  Roman  Catholics  had 
grown  feeble,  the  former  had  lost  no  time  in  taking  advantage  of 
the  change,  to  strike  down  toleration  and  raise  the  standard  of  in- 
tolerance. Cromwell,  however,  in  whom  the  principles  of  the 
Independents  were  then  uppermost,  and  who  was  not  slow  to  per- 
ceive the  political  advantage  of  maintaining  a  tolerant  common- 
wealth to  counterbalance  the  intolerance  of  Virginia,  had  the 
proprietary's  patent  confirmed,  and,  after  several  fluctuations,  this 
Palatine  was  reinstated  in  his  rights,  and  with  him  the  former 
principles  of  toleration,  which,  as  it  turned  out,  in  a  short  time 
survived  his  own  power.  Still,  though  it  had  gained  the  ascend- 
ancy, the  cause  of  conscience  was  not  strong  enough  to  maintain  a 
defiant  attitude.  South  of  Virginia,  the  population  was  so  thin  and 
scattered,  that  its  spiritual  condition  can  hardly  be  described. 
The  few  people  that  were  there,  received  with  uniform  kindness 
the  representatives  of  any  church  or  sect  that  happened  to  go  that 
way,  but  freedom  of  conscience  as  a  social  force  was  unknown. 


FREEDOM  OF  CONSCIENCE  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.        69 

It  was,  then,  in  Rhode  Island  alone,  that,  about  1676,  when 
Quakerism  took  possession  of  West  New  Jersey,  the  golden  doc- 
trine may  be  said  to  have  existed  in  simplicity  and  purity  ;  for 
that  colony  then  possessed  a  charter  which,  more  liberal  even 
than  that  of  Maryland  (inasmuch  as  it  did  not  exact  the  oath  of 
allegiance),  gave  every  thing  which  freemen  could  desire.  Charles 
II.,  in  1660,  in  answer  to  a  petition  of  the  colonists  for  a  patent, 
which  should  enable  them  "  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that 
a  most  flourishing  civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained, 
with  a  full  liberty  of  religious  concernments,"  granted  a  charter 
by  which  not  only  the  independence  of  Rhode  Island  as  to  Mass- 
achusetts was  recognized,  but  by  which  a  democratic  form  of 
government  was  conceded,  and  full  liberty  granted  the  colonists 
to  make  their  own  laws  ;  the  only  stipulation  being,  that  such  laws 
should  be  in  conformity  with  those  of  England,  yet,  nevertheless, 
"  agreeable  to  the  constitution  of  the  place  and  the  nature  of  the 
people."  But  by  far  the  most  important  and  beneficial  clause  in 
this  benign  charter  was  that  which  prescribed,  that  "  No  person 
within  the  said  colony,  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  anywise 
molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  any  dif- 
ference in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  ;  every  person  may  at 
all  times  freely  and  fully  enjoy  his  own  judgment  and  conscience 
in  matters  of  religious  concernments." 

Thus  it  was,  that  in  Rhode  Island  alone  full  liberty  of  con- 
science and  of  worship  could  be  said  to  exist.  The  advent  of  the , 
Society  of  Friends  was  now,  however,  to  give  it  the  impulse  nec- 
essary to  the  enlargement  and  establishment  of  its  domain.  This 
impulse  was  due  to  four  things  :  to  the  time  when  West  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania  were  settled  ;  to  the  central  position  occupied 
by  these  two  colonies,  Pennsylvania,  at  a  later  day,  indeed,  from 
its  topographical  relations  to  the  other  colonies,  being  styled,  the 
Keystone  of  the  arch  ;  to  the  accession  of  adherents  thus 
brought  to  the  cause  ;  and  to  the  judgment  and  prudence  with 
which  the  Quakers  advocated  their  principles  and  the  fidelity  to 
them  they  displayed. 

The  first  Quaker  settlement  in  West  Jersey  was  planted,  in  1675, 
at  Salem,  on  the  Delaware,  and,  to  those  who  emigrated,  the  Pro- 
prietaries gave  this  remarkable  assurance  :  "  We  lay  a  foundation 
for  after  ages  to  understand  their  liberty  as  Christians  and  as  men, 


70  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

that  they  may  not  be  brought  into  bondage,  but  by  their  own  con- 
sent ;  for  we  put  the  power  in  the  peopled  This  is  the  most  striking 
instance  of  a  purely  popular  government  being  resolved  upon  in 
England,  and  being  freely  granted  therefrom  to  a  colony,  and 
justifies  the  assertion,  that  the  Quakers  did  not  content  themselves 
with  seeking  greater  freedom  in  religion,  but  aspired  to  a  form  of 
government  more  popular  in  its  constitution  than  any  then  exist- 
ing. The  fact  may  be  explained  by  the  natural  indisposition  of 
the  colonists,  who  were  all  of  the  same  social  class,  and  that  a 
humble  one,  to  open  the  door  to  the  ascendency  of  any  ambitious 
men  the  ignorance  and  inexperience  of  the  colony  might  tempt 
thither,  or  who,  under  the  unequal  favors  of  fortune,  might  rise 
out  of  their  own  midst.  Were  such  the  motive,  it  was  a  wise  one, 
but,  be  it  what  it  may,  the  interest  of  this  surprising  step  is  height- 
ened by  the  consideration  that  it  was  first  taken  by  a  people  who 
make  it  a  part  of  their  creed  to  uphold  and  maintain  the  existing 
government,  whatever  it  be,  so  long  as  it  is  not  hostile  to  the  laws 
of  God,  and  who  profess  to  abhor  change  in  political  rule.* 

The  laws  enacted  under  the  guaranty  of  the  Proprietaries  at 
once  showed  the  existing  desire  for  a  government  by  the  people, 
and  the  lofty  principle  which  the  colonists  meant  to  enforce  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  The  very  first  enactment  made  by 
these  rustics  was  as  follows  :  No  man,  nor  any  fiujnber  of  men^ 
hath  power  over  conscience.  No  persofi  shall  at  any  time,  in  any  ways, 
or  on  any  pretence,  be  called  in  question,  or  in  the  least  punished  or 
hurt  for  opinion  in  religion.  Then  followed  the  clauses  relating 
to  the  legislature,  the  elective  franchise,  the  executive  and  the  ju- 
dicial branches  of  the  government.  The  general  assembly  was  to 
be  chosen,  not  by  the  confused  way  of  cries  and  voices,  but  by 
the  balloting-box,  and  every  man  was  to  be  capable  of  choosing 
and  being  chosen.  The  electors  were  to  instruct  the  deputies, 
and,  in  return,  the  deputies  were  to  bind  themselves,  by  indentures 
under  hand  and  seal,  to  obey  the  instructions.  Were  the  deputy 
disobedient  or  unfaithful,  he  could  be  questioned  before  the  legis- 
lature by  any  one  of  his  electors,  and  "  that  he  may  be  known  as 
the  servant  of  the  people,"  one  shilling  was  to  be  paid  him  daily 
by  his  constituents,  in  satisfaction  of  his  trouble  and  outlay. 

As  for  the  executive  power,  it  lay  in  ten  commissioners  appointed 

*  Penn's  Preamble  to  his  "  Frame  of  Government." 


THE   QUAKERS  OF  WEST  JERSEY.  7 1 

by  the  legislature  ;  and,  with  respect  to  the  judiciary,  the  judges 
were  likewise  appointed  by  the  same  body,  and,  holding  their 
offices  for  a  term  of  two  years  only,  sat  merely  as  assistants  to  the 
jury,  which,  as  in  England,  consisted  of  twelve  men.  No  attorneys 
or  counsellors  were  permitted  to  practise  ;  no  one  could  be  im- 
prisoned for  debt,  and  the  penalty  of  death  could  be  inflicted  only 
for  murder. 

This  constitution,  if  so  it  can  be  called,  is  a  medley  of  golden 
principles  and  inefficient  mechanism.  The  head  is  the  head  of  a 
god,  but  the  limbs  are  those  of  a  paralytic.  Here  are  a  people, 
who,  of  a  truth,  love  justice  and  hate  iniquity  ;  a  people,  whose 
humble  pride  is  to  order  their  ways  by  those  of  experience  ;  whose 
cardinal  doctrine  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  is  absolute  freedom  of  in- 
vestigation and  discussion,  and  who,  be  they  ever  so  hard  pressed, 
scorn  any  other  weapon  in  its  defence  ;  whose  sense  of  order  and 
attachment  to  freedom  of  action  lead  them  to  abhor  the  confusion 
of  mob  rule  or  the  oppression  of  oligarchies,  and  whose  mainten- 
ance of  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  to  all,  is  known  of  men  ;  yet, 
we  behold  this  people,  when  they  come  together  to  organize  a  body 
politic  which  shall  have  these  matchless  principles  for  social  forces, 
cast  to  the  winds  the  teachings  of  experience  and  common-sense, 
and  the  same  voice  which  startles  a  world  by  its  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  forbids  the  existence  of  an  independent  judiciary,  takes 
away  from  the  accused  his  right  to  thorough  investigation,  shuts 
the  mouth  of  the  patriot  against  discussion,  deprives  the  legislator 
of  the  noble  character  of  representative,  fetters  his  action,  and 
hands  over  the  commonwealth  to  as  real  a  Council  of  Ten  as  ever 
whispered  its  decrees  in  the  chambers  of  the  Doge's  Palace. 

This  constitution  might  exist  for  a  while  among  a  scanty, 
simple,  and  agricultural  people,  whose  wants  were  few,  whose 
ideas  were  narrow,  and  whose  moderate  ambition  offered  no  field 
to  conflicting  interests  :  but  it  could  never  endure  in  any  ordinary 
community,  and,  in  fact,  it  savors  more  of  the  government  of  a 
sect,  or  order,  than  of  a  people.  But,  on  account  of  the  populari- 
ty of  government  which  it  exposes,  it  should  be  held  in  the 
greatest  importance  by  the  historian  and  the  political  philosopher. 
No  matter  how  defective  the  machinery  these  clumsy  hands  put 
together,  one  thing  appears — that  its  force  was  deliberately  in- 
tended to  maintain  a  democracy.     It  is  not,  however,  the  merits 


^2  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

or  demerits  of  this  constitution,  as  a  work  of  state-craft,  with 
which  we  have  to  do,  but  the  spirit  which  gave  it  being,  and  the 
results  it  produced.  What  was  its  motive,  what  its  tendency,  and 
what  were  its  effects  upon  American  character  ?  Its  motive,  un- 
doubtedly, was  the  desire  of  the  individual  for  greater  freedom  of 
political  action  than  any  he  had  hitherto  enjoyed — its  intention 
was  to  organize  a  democracy  ;  as  the  work  of  those  who  had 
bargained  it  out  of  the  lords  of  the  soil,  its  tendency  was,  by 
showing  those  who  came  after  them  that  they  could  obtain  the 
same  liberties  if  they  pursued  a  like  course,  to  broaden  the  area 
of  popular  government ;  and  its  result  was,  to  plant  a  democracy 
on  American  soil  and  to  foster  the  notions  of  self-government. 

That  such  were  the  effects,  was  soon  shown  in  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  ;  for,  a  few  years  afterwards,  in  1682,  Pennsylvania  was 
founded.  There  can  be  no  question  of  the  settlement  of  Pennsyl- 
vania being  a  result  of  that  of  West  Jersey.  The  attention  of 
Penn,  the  great  founder,  had  been  attracted  to  the  territory  west 
of  the  Delaware,  by  the  success  of  the  West  Jersey  colony,  of 
whose  progress  he  kept  himself  informed  through  his  connection 
with  the  estate  of  Byllinge,  the  proprietor.  The  patent  issued  by 
James  the  Second,  in  1681,  makes  no  mention  of  toleration,  nor 
does  the  "  Frame  of  Government,"  composed  by  Penn  and  pub- 
lished in  1682  ;  but  as,  in  the  "Laws  Agreed  upon  in  England," 
in  1 68 1,  toleration  in  matters  of  religion  was  broadly  asserted,  in 
a  way  that  leaves  no  doubt  of  its  recognition  as  a  social  force,  and 
as  afterward,  in  the  **  Great  Act,"  passed  at  Chester,  it  was  emphati- 
cally made  the  law  of  the  land,  in  almost  the  very  words  of  the 
"  Laws  Agreed  upon  in  England  "  ;  and,  moreover,  what  is  of  still 
greater  importance,  as  both  Proprietary  and  people  held  them- 
selves out  to  the  world  as  the  guardians  of  toleration,  and  not 
only  enacted  statutes  to  protect  it,  but  obeyed  them  in  spirit  and 
in  truth,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  have  ever  been  regarded, 
the  world  over,  as  the  devoted  advocates  and  supporters  of  free- 
dom of  conscience,  and  the  settlement  of  the  province  as  one  of 
the  greatest  events  in  the  annals  of  that  doctrine.  It  would,  in 
fact,  under  the  principle  of  the  Inner  Light,  so  fondly  cherislied 
by  them,  have  been  impossible  for  the  Quakers  to  be  any  thing 
else  ;   and  the  prominence  attained  by  them  at  the  time  is  mostly 


QUAKERISM  IN  PENNSYLVANIA,  73 

due  to  the  tenacity  with  which  they  clung  to  liberty  of  conscience, 
the  earnestness  with  which  they  advocated  its  extension,  and  to 
the  good-fortune  which  transferred  to  their  hands  the  destiny  of 
this  doctrine,  in  a  locality  where  there  were  none  to  oppose  it, 
and  in  days  when  the  encouragement  of  the  sovereign  was  aug- 
mented by  the  necessity  he  was  under  of  courting  the  good-will 
of  the  Dissenters. 

Though  their  history,  like  that  of  every  other  religion,  is  disfig- 
ured, at  times,  particularly  at  the  outset,  by  the  marks  of  sectari- 
anism and  fanaticism,  they  were  never  unfaithful  to  this  principle, 
and  their  unwavering  fidelity  has  won  from  all  creeds  the  respect 
and  gratitude  which  have  been  ungrudgingly  accorded  it. 

The  times,  and  the  relations  existing  between  the  Penns  and 
the  royal  family,  were  propitious  to  the  undertaking  that  William, 
the  son,  resolved  upon.  The  services  of  the  late  Admiral,  in  the 
war  against  the  Dutch,  and  a  debt  due  to  him  from  the  crown, 
smoothed  the  way  to  a  successful  negotiation,  and  Penn  soon 
found  himself  in  possession  of  a  charter,  which  gave  him  all  he 
desired — the  title  to  a  seigniory,  to  be  styled  Pennsylvania,^  of 
vast  extent,  lying  in  a  temperate  and  fruitful  region,  easily  acces- 
sible by  water,  clothed  with  dense  forests,  and,  above  all,  unoccu- 
pied by  Europeans.  The  soil  and  climate  offered  every  thing 
requisite  to  the  rapid  and  healthy  growth  of  a  sturdy  people,  and 
the  solitude  opposed  nothing  to  the  free  exercise  of  their  princi- 
ples, except  the  physical  limitations  imposed  everywhere  by  the 
seasons'  difference.  The  woods  were  more  free  from  peril  than 
the  envious  court. 

This  charter,  as  expressed  in  the  preamble,  was  granted  to  Penn, 
"  out  of  a  commendable  desire  to  enlarge  our  British  empire,  and 
promote  such  useful  commodities  as  may  be  of  benefit  to  us  and 
our  dominions,  as  also  to  reduce  the  savage  natives,  by  just  and 
gentle  manners,  to  the  love  of  civil  society  and  Christian  religion  "  ; 
and  having  described  the  boundaries  and  defined  the  tenure,  which 
was  "  to  be  holden  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  kings  of  Eng- 

*"  I  proposed  *  *  Sylvania,  and  they  added  Penn  to  it,  and  though  I 
much  opposed  it,  and  went  to  the  king  to  have  it  struck  out  and  ahered,  he  said 
it  was  past,  and  would  take  it  upon  him.  *  *  *  j  feared  lest  it  should  be 
looked  on  as  a  vanity  in  me,  and  not  as  a  respect  in  the  king,  as  it  truly  was,  to 
my  father."  "  Letter  to  Rob,  Turner."  Hazard's  "Annals,"  500.  "Reg. 
Penns.,"  I,  297.     "  Memoirs,  Penn.  Hist.  Soc." 


74  CONSTITUl'IONAL  LIBERTY. 

land,  as  of  our  castle  of  Windsor,  in  the  county  of  Berks,  in  free 
and  common  socage,  by  fealty  only,  for  all  services,  and  not  /// 
capite  or  by  knight  service,  yielding  and  paying  therefor  to  us  *  *  * 
two  beaver  skins,  to  be  delivered  at  our  castle  of  Windsor,  on  the 
first  day  of  January  in  every  year,"  it  granted  to  Penn,  among 
many  franchises,  the  right  of  making  the  laws  "  with  the  advice, 
assent,  and  approbation  of  the  freemen  of  the  said  country,  or  the 
greater  part  of  them,  or  of  their  delegates  or  deputies,"  so  long 
as  they  should  not  be  repugnant  to  those  of  England  ;  but  the 
right  was  reserved  to  appoint,  on  the  petition  of  twenty  inhabitants, 
"preachers  "  approved  by  the  Bishop  of  London.' 

Thus,  while  the  people  were  assured  of  their  liberties  by  the 
safeguard  which  a  personal  share  in  the  government  alone  se- 
cures, a  saving  clause  retained  the  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
Church  of  England's  services,  upon  the  demand  of  a  number  of 
inhabitants  sufficient  to  warrant  the  procedure.  It  will  be  ob- 
served, that  this  charter,  which  breaks  the  silence  respecting  re- 
ligion to  display  a  qualified  preference  for  that  which  was  estab- 
lished in  the  mother-country,  cannot  be  ranked  in  the  same 
category  with  that  of  Rhode  Island,  which  placed  no  limitation 
whatever  on  conscience  ;  or  with  that  of  Maryland,  which  imposed 
but  one  ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  it  be  classed  with  those 
which  directly  recognized  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of 
England,  as  did  those  of  New  York  and  Virginia.  In  respect  to 
religion,  it  was  silent  ;  it  permitted,  indeed,  freedom  of  conscience 
by  implication,  but  the  enforcement  of  this  freedom,  which  brought 
such  glory  to  Pennsylvania,  was  due  to  the  devotion  and  determi- 
nation of  the  Founder  and  his  people  only  :  in  no  respect  was  tol- 
eration a  gift  of  the  crown,  which  regarded  the  grant  of  a  desert 
in  the  other  hemisphere  simply  as  a  new  way  of  paying  old  debts. 

Penn  sent  out  a  deputy  to  take  possession,  who  likewise  bore  a 
letter  to  those  who  had  already  gone  before,  in  which  he  tells 
them,  that  they  are  now  fixed  at  the  mercy  of  no  governor  that 
comes  to  make  his  fortunes  great,  but  that  they  shall  be  governed 
by  laws  of  their  own  making,  and  live  a  free,  and,  if  they  will,  a 
sober  and  industrious  people."     He  himself  remained  in  England, 

^  See  preamble  to  the  charter,  and  sections  I,  III,  IV,  V,  and  XXII. 
Hazard's  "Annals,"  488,  et  seq. 

'^ "  Letter  for  the  Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,  to  be  read  by  my  Deputy." 
Ibid,,  502. 


PENN'S  ARRIVAL   IN  AMERICA.  75 

for  the  time  being,  for  he  knew  well  that  the  foundations  of  an 
English  colony  were,  first  of  all,  to  be  laid  there,^  and  that  it  would 
only  entail  on  Pennsylvania  the  evils  which  other  colonies  had 
been  called  on  to  endure,  were  he,  like  their  leaders,  to  first  plant 
the  colony,  and  then  secure  the  privileges.  Accordingly,  profiting 
by  their  experience,  he  delayed  his  departure  in  order  to  oversee 
for  himself  the  organization  of  what  he  firmly  believed  was  to  be- 
come a  great  State,^  and  it  was  thence  that  he  issued  his  "  Letter 
to  the  Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,"  *  his  "Argument  in  favor  of 
Colonies,"  *  the  "  Conditions  and  Concessions "  ^  agreed  upon 
between  himself  and  the  purchasers,  the  "  Instructions  to  his  Com- 
missioners,'' "  in  which  he  first  exposes  his  admirable  policy  re- 
specting the  Indians,  his  *'  Letter  to  the  Indians  "  ^  themselves, 
the  ** Charter  for  the  Free  Society  of  Traders,""  the  "Frame  of 
Government,"  *  which  is  preceded  by  an  essay  setting  forth  his 
views  of  government  and  civil  society,  and,  especially,  the  "Laws 
Agreed  upon  in  England,""  which  were  intended  to  be  altered 
or  amended  by  the  colonial  assembly,  if  needs  be,  and  which  was 
afterward  done.  Then,  having  thus  made  straight  his  paths 
beforehand,  he  bade  farewell  to  England,  and,  on  the  27th  day  of 
October,  1682,  arrived  before  the  town  of  New  Castle,  in  what  is 
now  Delaware. 

The  political  principles  and  method  of  organization  which 
were  to  direct  the  colony,  are  to  be  found  in  the  "  Frame  of  Gov- 
ernment," but  it  is  in  the  "  Laws  Agreed  upon  in  England  "  that 
we  are  to  seek  for  the  first  proclamation  of  religious  liberty  in 
Pennsylvania.  It  is  as  follows  :  "  That  all  persons  living  in  this 
province  who  confess  and  acknowledge  the  one  Almighty  and 
Eternal  God  to  be  the  Creator,  Upholder,  and  Ruler  of  the 
world,  and  that  hold  themselves  obliged  in  conscience  to  live 

*  "  I  shall  have  a  tender  care  to  the  government,  that  it  will  be  well  laid  at 
first." — "  Letter  to  R.  Turner,"  Hazard,  500. 

'  There  are  many  instances  of  this  hopeful  anticipation  on  his  part.  I  will 
cite,  however,  only  the  earliest  one  I  have  at  hand  ;  it  is  contained  in  the  letter  to 
Robert  Turner,  previously  referred  to,  and  written  before  he  set  foot  in  America: 
"  It  is  a  clear  and  just  thing,  and  my  God,  that  has  given  it  me  through  many 
difficulties,  will,  I  believe,  bless  and  make  it  the  seed  of  a  nation." 
^Hazard,  502-3.  ^ Ibid.,  505,  et seq, 

^  Ibid.,  510,  516,  et  seq,  '^  Ibid.,  527,  528,  529,  530, 

^  Ibid.,  532,  533.  *  Ibid.,  541,  et  seq. 

°  Ibid. ,  558,^/  seq.  "  Ibid. ,  ^^'^,et  seq. 


7^  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

peaceably  and  justly  in  civil  society,  shall  in  noways  be  molested 
or  prejudiced  for  their  religious  persuasion  or  practice  in  matters 
of  faith  and  worship  ;  nor  shall  they  be  compelled  at  any  time  to 
frequent  or  maintain  any  religious  worship,  place,  or  ministry 
whatever."  Thus,  Jew  or  Gentile  was  to  be  protected  both  in  his 
faith  and  in  the  observance  of  it,  and  could  live  on  the  shores  of 
the  Delaware  unmolested  and  unprejudiced  on  account  of  con- 
science, so  long  as  the  existence  of  God  was  acknowledged.  If 
freedom  of  conscience  was  not  asserted,  toleration  was.  Atheists 
and  polytheists  were  alone  debarred,  and  with  the  same  breath 
there  was  erected  a  barrier  against  the  establishment  of  any  church 
as  a  political  institution. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  the  broad  principle  thus 
laid  down  was  not  maintained  in  the  legislation  that  followed. 
Hardly  had  Penn  taken  the  repose  necessary  after  a  long  voyage, 
and  one  which  was  rendered  doubly  trying  by  the  presence  of  an 
epidemic  on  board  ship,  than  he  called  together  a  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  colony  (which  at  that  time  embraced  what  is  now  the 
State  of  Delaware  as  well  as  that  of  Pennsylvania),  at  Upland,  or, 
as  it  is  at  present  styled,  Chester,  in  order  that  the  colonists  might 
begin  for  themselves  the  legislation  needful  to  the  well-ordering 
of  their  affairs.  The  constitution,  as  it  may  be  called,  of  the  col- 
ony, was,  until  then,  to  be  gathered  only  from  the  royal  letters 
patent,  the  "Frame  of  Government,"  and  the  "Laws  Agreed 
upon  in  England."  The  colonists  were  now,  however,  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  and  their  first  duty  was,  evidently,  to  ratify 
by  their  own  legislation  the  principles  contained  in  the  organic 
law,  and  to  enact  a  body  of  laws  which,  dispensing  with  those 
agreed  upon  in  England,  should  derive  their  force  and  virtue 
solely  from  the  action  of  those  who  were  to  obey  them.  This 
they  promptly  did,  and,  after  settling  the  affairs  which  were  most 
pressing,  they  gave  to  the  inhabitants  what  has  since  been  known 
as  the  "  Great  Law  of  Chester  "  ;  a  code  to  this  day  held  in  rev- 
erence by  the  people  of  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  who  regard  it 
as  the  source  of  some  of  their  most  cherished  institutions.'  In 
this  law  the  different  branches  of  the  government  were  defined, 

^  Particularly  those  which  prescribe  the  registry  of  deeds,  etc.;  ihe  distribution 
of  intestates'  estates  ;  the  power  to  make  wills  ;  the  liability  of  lands  to  be  taken 
in  execution  and  sold  for  the  payment  of  debts  ;  prisons  to  be  workhouses, 
etc. 


LIMITA  TIONS  ON  FREEDOM  OF  CONSCIENCE.  77 

and  their  limits  prescribed.'  The  Governor,  as  Proprietary,  of 
course  derived  his  powers  from  the  Charter,  which  expressly 
enumerated  them  ;  but  the  limitations  on  the  legislature  and  the 
judiciary,  and  the  qualifications  of  the  officers,  representatives,  and 
electors,  could,  under  the  letters  patent,  be  determined  only  by 
the  Governor,  as  Proprietary  or  lord  of  the  seigniory,  by  and  witli 
the  advice,  assent,  and  approbation  of  the  people  themselves  in 
general  council  assembled.  It  was  on  the  qualifications  of  these 
officers,  representatives,  and  electors,  that  the  emphatic  assertion 
of  religious  liberty,  so  broadly  laid  down  in  '*  the  Laws  Agreed 
upon  in  England,"  first  received  a  check.  The  rehgious  liberty 
there  described  and  pledged,  was,  in  the  very  first  section,  made 
to  read  Christian  liberty  ;  an  ominous  modification  which  was 
speedily  amplified  in  the  second  section  into  the  provision,  that 
all  officers  employed  in  the  service  of  the  government,  and  all 
members  elected  to  serve  in  the  Assembly,  with  those  who  had  the 
right  to  elect  them,  should  be  such  as  professed  and  declared  that 
they  believed  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God.''  Thus,  no  Jew 
or  freethinker  (atheists  and  those  equally  heretical  having  been 
excluded  already  from  the  shelter  of  toleration)  could  be  either  an 
elector,  a  deputy,  or  an  officer  of  government ;  though  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  his  being  a  resident,  and,  as  such,  claiming 
the  protection  of  the  administration,  so  long  as  he  behaved 
himself  well  and  paid  scot  and  lot  to  the  governor. 

To  this  qualification  for  freemen  was  added  still  another,  by 
section  sixty-fifth,  which  required  them  to  be  landholders,  or,  in 
default  of  realty,  to  pay  certain  taxes.  Between  these  two  sec- 
tions, the  latter  of  which  makes  no  mention  whatever  of  faith  or 
creed,  there  seems  to  be  a  conflict  ;  as  the  sixty-fifth  expressly 
says,  that  any  "  other  resident  in  the  said  province  [than  a  land- 
holder], that  pays  scot  and  lot  to  the  governor,  shall  be  deemed 
and  accounted  a  freeman  of  this  province  and  territory  thereof  ; 
and  such  only  shall  have  right  of  election,  or  being  elected  to  any 
service  in  the  government  thereof."     Thus,  there  is  an  obvious 

*  "  I  took  a  trip  once  with  Penn  to  his  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  The  laws 
there  are  contained  in  a  small  volume,  and  are  so  extremely  good  that  there  lias 
been  no  alteration  wanted  in  any  of  them.  *  *  *  There  are  four  persons  as 
judges  on  the  bench  ;  and,  after  the  case  has  been  fairly  laid  down  on  both 
sides,  all  the  four  draw  lots,  and  upon  whom  the  lot  falls  decides  the  question." 
— Spence's  "  Anecdotes." 

'  See  Appendix  B 


78  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

difference  ;  for,  if  the  freemen  were  to  be  such  as  are  thus  de- 
scribed, and  those  who  were  freemen  were  to  be  electors,  then, 
no  religious  restriction  herein  appearing,  any  one,  be  his  belief 
what  it  may,  was  a  freeman,  and  could  vote  and  be  voted  for  ;  and 
section  sixty-fifth  must  conflict  with  section  second,  wherein  the 
right  to  elect  and  to  hold  office  is  restricted  to  Christians  only. 
But,  inasmuch  as  these  two  sections  are  part  and  parcel  of  the 
same  instrument,  are  of  equal  weight,  and  refer  to  the  same 
things,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible,  that  they  must  be  construed 
together,  and  that,  by  the  "(jreat  Law  of  Chester,"  the  freedom  of 
the  colony  belonged  of  right  only  to  the  Christian  landholders 
and  the  taxpaying  Christians  of  the  province. 

It  can  hardly  escape  the  notice  of  the  observer,  that  Avhere  the 
doctrine  of  toleration  was  set  forth  with  no  limitation  except  that 
of  a  belief  in  God,  was  in  England  and  previous  to  Penn's  de- 
parture ;  and  that  where  the  restriction  concerning  Christianity 
was  imposed  upon  it,  was  in  America  where  the  people  had  a 
voice.  It  is  impossible  to  forego  the  conclusion,  that  the  former 
was  the  doctrine  of  Penn,^  and  the  latter  that  of  his  followers  ; 
and  that  the  Proprietor  was  compelled  to  accept  the  qualification 
in  order  to  save  what  he  could  of  the  principle.  As  a  body,  the 
Quakers,  evidently,  were  not  yet  abreast  of  their  leader's  standard. 
However,  the  "  Great  Law  of  Chester  "  reduces  Pennsylvania  to 
the  plane  of  Maryland,  elevated  though  that  be  in  the  list  in  which 
the  historian  of  religious  liberty  must  to-day  class  its  strongholds, 
and  both  these  colonies  must  yield  to  Rhode  Island  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  only  one,  as  yet,  whose  head  rose  above  the 
clouds.  ^ 

One  cannot  refrain  from  admiring  the  order,  system,  and  pru- 
dence which  characterized  the  settlement  of  Maryland  and  Penn- 
sylvania. What  can  be  said  of  Maryland  may  also  be  said  of 
Pennsylvania,  where  as  little  as  possible  was  left  to  chance,  and 
where  common-sense  governed  the  enterprise  from  first  to  last. 
The  distinguishing  fact  has  already  been  remarked,  that  the  Pro- 
prietary used  his  experience  of  courts  and  high  places  to  the  ben- 

'  **  I  went  thither  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  free  colony  for  all  mankind 
that  should  go  thitheiy,  more  especially  those  of  my  own  profession  ;  not  that  I 
would  lessen  the  civil  liberties  of  others  because  of  their  persuasion,  but  screen 
and  defend  our  own  from  any  infringement  on  that  account." — "  Letter  to 
Mompesson,"  "  Mems.,  Hist.  Sec.  of  Pa.,"  ix,  373. 


ORDERLY  MODE   OF  SETTLEMENT,  79 

efit  of  his  people,  in  this  respect  :  that  he  obtained  his  franchises 
and  privileges  before  he  planted  his  colony.  The  same  prudence 
dictated  the  ensuing  measures.  Instead  of  casting  shiploads  of 
helpless  enthusiasts  into  a  wilderness  without  provisions,  without 
shelter,  or  even  the  resources  to  supply  the  ordinary  wants  of 
human  beings,  the  proper  seasons  for  making  voyages  were 
chosen,  the  nature  of  the  ground  had  been  thoroughly  ascertained 
beforehand,  shelter  and  comfort  awaited  those  coming,  and,  in 
fact,  every  thing  was  conducted,  from  the  first  step  to  the  last, 
with  a  systematic  ordering,  which  looked,  not  to  the  temporary 
seclusion  of  a  sect,  but  to  the  foundation  of  a  State  for  all  time 
and  for  all  people.  First  went  the  surveyors  to  lay  off  the  land  ; 
then  followed  the  artisans  to  build  the  tenements,  which  enabled 
the  colonists,  immediately  upon  their  arrival,  to  enjoy  the  repose 
needed  after  a  wave-tossed  voyage  ;  and,  last  of  all,  came  the 
men,  women,  and  children.  Gardens  were  planted,  fields  tilled, 
towns  laid  off,  and  houses  erected,  before  the  mass  of  emigrants 
arrived.  The  new  sect,  in  its  increase,  now  embraced  members 
of  the  higher  classes,  and,  as  these  colonists  were  of  a  station  in 
society  which  implied  ownership  of  goods,  they  naturally  brought 
with  them  considerable  wealth,  and  it  may  be  truly  said,  that 
Penn's  colonists  simply  transferred  themselves  and  their  belong- 
ings from  homes  in  England  to  homes  in  Pennsylvania.  The  let- 
ters of  the  settlers  to  their  friends  and  relatives,  previous  to  leaving 
the  old  country,  afford  abundant  evidence  of  the  deliberate  and 
orderly  way  in  which  the  removal  of  their  household  goods  to 
America  was  regarded  by  those  among  them  who  were  best  off,  and 
it  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  meet  with  paragraphs  imparting 
the  information,  that,  as  soon  as  the  dwelling  in  Pennsylvania 
should  be  finished — generally  by  the  ensuing  spring, — the  family 
expected  to  sail,  and  to  find,  on  its  arrival,  the  garden  planted,  the 
farm  stocked,  and  the  house  provided  with  the  furniture^  already 
shipped  under  the  care  of  servants.*  The  shifts  for  lodging  which 
the  first  builders  of  Philadelphia  were  put  to,  were  merely  those 
that  are  incident  to  the  building  of  any  frontier  village.     It  is  yet 

*  In  order  to  induce  servants  to  go  to  the  colony,  fifty  acres  each  are  prom- 
ised, and  that  this  class  became  at  once  sufficiently  numerous  to  justify  the  es- 
pecial attention  of  the  administration,  is  shown  by  the  references  to  it  in  the 
"Conditions  and  Concessions,"  sect,  vii  ;  Penn's  "Charter  to  the  People," 
sect,  xxiii ;  and  in  the  "  Great  Law  of  Chester,"  sects.  25,  56,  65.  Of  course, 
they  indicate  also  the  prosperous  condition  of  their  superiors. 


So  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

a  daily  occurrence  of  border  life,  that  the  mechanics  and  their 
families,  if  there  be  any,  must  "  camp  out  "  until  the  roofs  which 
are  to  cover  them,  are  constructed  ;  and  so  it  was  with  these. 
The  solid,  substantial  growth  of  Philadelphia,  indeed,  can  only 
be  accounted  for  by  the  wealth  the  colonists  brought  with  them, 
by  its  steady  increase,  by  the  orderly,  careful,  and  thorough  way 
in  which  they  set  about  building  their  city,  and  by  the  determina- 
tion of  every  family  which  had  come,  to  stay.'  At  a  very  early 
period  we  find  the  more  opulent  families  in  possession  of  country 
houses,'*  to  which  they  retired  during  the  heats  of  summer,  as  well 
as  of  town  houses,  where  they  passed  the  winter  ;  and  to  this  day 
the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia  is  dotted  over  with  antiquated 
residences,  or  with  modern  mansions  which  have  taken  their  places, 
whose  well-trimmed  lawns  and  hedges,  old  though  they  be,  are  not 
as  ancient  as  their  names,  which  perpetuate  the  early  settler's  fond 
remembrance  of  the  home  he  left  behind  him  in  England. 

Nor  are  the  physical  features  which  distinguish  this  colony  from 
the  others,  more  marked  than  those  which  characterize  it  socially, 
religiously,  and  politically.  The  anomaly  presented  by  a  people 
professing  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  and  whose  grateful 
regard  for  the  intolerant  House  of  Stuart  never  grew  cold,  actu- 
ally stipulating  for  the  free  exercise  of  political  principles  which 
were  sure  to  modify  the  form  of  government  they  were  born 
under,  has  been  already  pointed  out ;  but  it  is  as  remarkable  as  it 
was  when  Maryland  and  Rhode  Island  returned  the  world  good 
for  evil,  that  a  people  whose  existence  had  always  been  at  the 
mercy  of  intolerance,  should  be  foremost  in  the  establishment  of 
toleration,  and  that  those  who  had  scarcely  known  any  thing  else 
than  to  be  smitten  on  the  one  cheek,  should  make  a  political 
principle  of  the  sacred  injunction  to  turn  the  other.  This  pas- 
siveness,  indeed,  has  been,  at  once,  the  glory  and  the  bane  of  the 
Quakers.  It  has  achieved  for  them  some  of  the  most  splendid 
conquests  ever  gained  by  man  over  himself :  but,  then,  by  inces- 

'•  Taylor,  afterward  the  Surveyor-General,  in  lines  expressing  the  result  of  his 
astrological  computations  respecting  Philadelphia,  thus  breaks  forth  : 
•*  A  city  built  with  such  propitious  rays. 

Will  stand  to  see  old  walls  and  happy  days." — (1705.) 
^  The  Proprietary  had  his  country  house  at  Pennsbury.      The  Logans,  Nor- 
rises,  etc.,   contemporaries    of    William  Penn,   all  retired  in  summer  to  their 
country-seats.      Southwark,  Spring  Garden,  Stenton,  Germantown,  Springetis- 
bury,  etc.,  were  chosen  places. 


PA  SSI  V EN  ESS.  8 1 

santly  repressing  the  most  active  forces  of  social  life,  it  has 
cramped  some  of  the  best  qualities  of  human  nature,  it  has  forced 
the  currents  of  existence  into  narrow  channels,  and  has  stinted 
society  in  the  rich  variety  of  personal  characteristics  which  is  the 
most  pleasing  feature  of  our  race.  The  sworn  foe  of  individuality, 
and  chilling  in  the  uniformity  with  which  it  has  covered  the  Soci- 
ety of  Friends,  it  is  a  poor  compensation  for  the  multiform  variety 
which  inventive  nature  is  constantly  asserting  its  right  to  produce. 
Immobility  is  not  a  heroic  quality  :  nevertheless,  vis  inerticR  has 
more  than  once  shown  the  world  how  effectually  evil  can  be  re- 
sisted by  refusing  to  get  out  of  its  way.  There  are  times,  when, 
to  resist  evil,  the  most  active  assault  is  necessary  ;  there  are 
others,  when  the  necessity  is  to  be  met  by  a  vigorous  defence  ;  and 
there  are  yet  others,  where  the  end  is  gained  by  sheer  immobility. 
Of  these  last  were  those  in  Pennsylvania  which  embraced  the 
reign  of  James  the  Second,  and  which  succeeded  the  Revolution 
of  1688,  until  terminated  by  the  accession  of  the  present  reigning 
House.  Every  attempt  to  inoculate  the  body  politic  with  the  dis- 
temper of  intolerance  was  resisted  by  the  indisposition  of  the  sys- 
tem to  take  the  disease.  As  Quakerism  embraced  the  majority  of 
the  people  and  most  of  the  wealth,  and,  politically,  was  conserva- 
tive, it  acted  as  a  restraint  upon  innovation,  and  became  a  correc- 
tive of  notions  which  would  tend  to  subvert  established  principles. 
Before  this  passive  exertion  of  power,  the  attempts  of  intolerance 
were  bootless,  and  every  gale  was  ridden  out  in  safety  by  the  bark 
which  held  the  treasure  simply  holding  on  to  its  anchor. 

Thus,  next  in  point  of  time  after  Rhode  Island  and  Maryland, 
we  are  indebted  for  freedom  of  conscience  to  the  Quakers.  In 
Rhode  Island,  a  purely  democratic  colony  was  established,  after 
persecution  and  exile,  by  the  efforts  of  the  colonists.  In  Mary- 
land, New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  which  were  seignoral  colo- 
nies, and  where  what  democracy  existed,  existed  by  the  bounty  or 
sufferance  of  the  Palatine,  we  see  popular  government  placed 
firmly  on  its  feet  by  the  enlightenment  or  judgment  of  the 
founders.  In  New  England,  then,  it  was  wrung  from  society ; 
but  on  the  Delaware,  society  accepted  it  from  the  hand  of  the 
philanthropist ;  and  on  the  Potomac,  from  that  of  the  courtier. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Religion  in  the  Northern  Provinces — Continued. 

Rationalism  of  New  England, 

WE  are  now  to  witness  freedom  of  conscience  rising  from 
the  bosom  of  society  instead  of  descending  upon  it,  and 
to  behold  this  social  force  asserting  its  existence  by  its  own  en- 
deavor, unaided  by  the  generosity  of  philanthropy  or  the  exercise 
of  authority. 

The  Great  Movement,  which  closed  its  grand  era  of  destruction 
with  the  investiture  of  the  Protector,  so  affected  the  people  of 
England,  that  henceforth  they  appear  in  a  new  character,  and  then 
began  a  period  in  their  career  which  still  continues.  The  history 
of  England  in  those  times  is  our  history.  We  were  subjects  of 
the  English  crown  or  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth,  and,  being 
Englishmen,  any  thing  that  affected  England  was  not  foreign  to 
us,  but  affected  us  as  it  did  those  in  the  old  country.*  In  fact, 
the  very  settlement  of  some  portions  of  our  land,  and  notably  of 
New  England,  was  by  no  means  an  indication  of  sympathy  with 
that  great  movement,  but  was  a  direct  expression,  a  very  part  of 
that  movement  itself.  The  colonization  of  New  England,  then, 
occurring  when  it  did,  is  of  the  highest  historical  importance,  as  it 
was  one  of  the  earliest  manifestations  of  the  spirit  of  revolution, 

*  "Old  England,  dear  England  still  *  *  *  left  indeed  by  us  in  our  per- 
sons, but  never  yet  forsaken  in  our  affections.  *  *  *  There  is  no  land  uiat 
claims  our  name  but  England  ;  *  *  *  there  is  no  name  that  calls  us  coun- 
trymen but  the  English.  Brethren,  did  we  not  there  draw  in  our  first  breath  ? 
Did  not  the  sun  first  shine  there  upon  our  heads  ?  Did  not  that  land  first  bear 
us,  even  that  pleasant  island,  *  *  *  that  garden  of  the  Lord,  that  para- 
dise ?" — ^William  Hooke's  *'  New  England's  Tears  for  Old  England's  Fears." 

82 


PURITANISM  IN  AMERICA.  83 

and  the  most  decided  and  practical  indication  of  the  leavening 
then  going  on  which  had  so  far  been  given. 

It  was,  indeed,  the  most  positive  and  emphatic  expression  of 
insubordination  possible  at  that  time  for  Englishmen  to  enunciate. 
The  mass  of  the  colonists  came  to  New  England  during  a  period 
when  the  old  order  of  things  at  home  was  still  too  strong  to  be 
successfully  resisted,  and  the  true  colonization  of  those  wilds  be- 
gan with  Winthrop's  expedition  in  1630. 

When  the  Parliament  of  1629  was  dissolved,  the  hopes  of  rising 
Puritanism  were  stricken  to  the  ground  :  henceforth  the  Puritan 
saw  no  chance  for  him  or  his  in  Old  England.  The  crown  was 
fully  committed  to  the  support  of  the  Church,  which,  under  the 
leadership  of  Laud,  had,  on  laying  aside  the  conservative  policy 
of  Parker  and  Whitgift,  adopted  the  most  radical  form  of  intoler- 
ance, and  the  complete  union  of  the  powers  of  Church  and  State 
in  an  active  and  aggressive  policy.  Resistance  was  apparently 
hopeless.  In  times  not  much  later,  and  when  revolution  was 
boldly  cleaving  its  way,  the  men  that  now  fled  would  have  resisted 
to  the  death.  Some  of  them  actually  did  so  ;  they  recrossed 
the  Atlantic  and  joined  their  forces  to  a  warfare  which  resulted  in 
the  downfall  of  Church  and  State  ;  but  in  1630  the  mind  had  not 
yet  cast  off  its  old  fetters,  and,  apparently,  there  was  nothing  else 
to  do  but  escape.  This  they  did,  and  thus  Puritanism  became 
American  as  well  as  English.  The  same  Puritanism  which,  unop- 
posed, developed  quietly  in  Massachusetts,  opposed  brought  on 
the  struggle  in  England  that  terminated  only  with  the  Common- 
wealth. The  Puritanism  of  America  sympathized  with  and  coun- 
tenanced that  of  England.  It  did  more  :  it  gave  physical  aid 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  Puritan  ends  at  home.  It  did  not 
make  itself  one  with  it,  for  it  was  already  and  ever  had  been  one 
and  the  same  thing,  and  hence  it  is  necessary  to  a  knowledge  of 
Puritanism  in  New  England  to  know  what  it  was  in  Old  England — 
the  more  so,  as,  from  the  opposition  it  there  met,  its  characteristics 
were  more  clearly  brought  before  the  world,  and  its  nature  can  be 
more  easily  and  fully  determined,  while  the  very  freedom  of  its 
course  in  New  England  prevented  the  most  active  and  interesting 
qualities  of  its  nature  from  making  themselves  conspicuous. 

That  the  motive  which  led  to  the  colonization  of  New  England 
was  one  in  nature  with  that  which  brought  about  the  Puritan 


84  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

revolution  in  Old  England,  needs  no  argument.  Religion  was 
the  inciting  cause  of  both  ;  though  the  remote  cause,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  to  be  found  in  the  necessity  of  supplying  the  new  wants 
which  resulted  from  an  antecedent  expansion  of  intellectual  ac- 
tion. The  historical  importance  of  this  identity  is  strikingly 
shown  by  the  epoch  of  the  Puritan  colonization,  by  the  duration 
of  emigration,  by  the  sudden  cessation  of  that  emigration,  and  by 
the  history  of  its  activity  as  a  social  force  on  American  soil. 

The  way  for  emigration  had  already  been  pointed  out  by  sev- 
eral feeble  bands  of  Brownists  or  Separatists,  who  had  sought 
shelter  in  Holland,  and  had  thence  betaken  themselves  to  America. 
The  first  of  these  (who  have  since  been  exalted  by  the  appellation 
of  "Pilgrims")  had  directed  their  course  to  the  Hudson,  but 
had  been  compelled  to  land  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  Their  num- 
bers were  sufficient  only  to  augment  their  misery  and  to  disclose 
the  impotence  of  efforts  to  colonize  where  means,  influence,  sup- 
plies, and  even  ordinary  foresight  were  lacking.* 

The  dropping  of  their  anchor  was  the  signal  for  a  compact, 
which  was  intended  to  be  the  first  step  toward  organization.  It 
was  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  amen.  We,  whose  names  are  underwrit- 
ten, the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  Sovereign  Lord  King  James, 
etc.,  etc.,  having  undertaken  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Christian  Faith,  and  the  honor  of  our  King  and 
Country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the  northern  parts  of 
Virginia,  we  do  by  these  presents  solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the 
presence  of  God  and  one  another,  covenant  and  combine  our- 
selves together  into  a  civil  body  politick,  for  our  better  ordering 
and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid  :  and  by 
virtue  hereof  do  enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equal 
laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices,  from  time  to  time, 
as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for  the  general 
good  of  the  colony  :  unto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission 
and  obedience." 

*  Their  improvidence  and  helplessness  are  shown  by  the  facts,  that,  for  four 
years  after  their  arrival,  their  chief  dependence  was  on  the  corn  purchased  from 
the  Indians.  They  did  not  even  have  nets  to  catch  the  fish,  with  which  the 
waters  teemed,  nor  salt  to  preserve  them,  had  they  been  caught.  ^In  1623,  ail 
they  could  set  before  the  third  arrival  of  colonists  were  a  lobster,  a  piece  of  fish, 
and  a  cup  of  water.  Bread  there  was  none.  Yet  these  people  had  contracted 
to  pay  forty.five  per  cent,  interest  per  annum  on  loans.  This  and  community 
of  property  repressed  energy  and  fairly  choked  the  enterprise  from  the  start. 


THE  MAYFLOWER   COMPACT.  85 

This,  the  whole  of  the  compact,  was  signed  by  forty-one  per- 
sons. It  has  been  greatly  lauded,  and  this  laudation  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  assertion  of  a  writer  of  great  weight,*  that  the 
compact  "  was  in  its  very  essence  a  pure  democracy." 

This  emphatic  and  sweeping  assertion  cannot  maintain  itself 
against  scrutiny ;  for  a  democracy  is  not  expressly  stated  in  the 
instrument,  it  does  not  appear  by  implication^  nor  is  it  warranted 
by  the  condition  of  the  parties. 

I.  In  respect  to  the  condition  of  those  who  signed  it :  that  all 
were  of  one  class,  and  of  the  class  of  commoners,  no  more  affects, 
of  itself,  the  nature  of  the  instrument,  and  what  flowed  from  it, 
than  if  all  had  been  lords.  They  were  citizens  of  a  monarchical 
and  aristocratic  State,  engaged  in  a  voluntary  undertaking,  and 
they  must  be  taken  as  representatives  of  such  a  State,  and  of  no 
other.  There  is,  then,  nothing  in  the_  condition  of  those  who 
signed  the  compact  to  warrant  the  assertion  that  their  covenant 
was  in  its  essence  a  pure  democracy,  or  the  outcome  of  one. 

Such  a  conclusion,  therefore,  can  be  justified  only  by  express 
terms  or  by  reasonable  implication. 

II.  The  ter7ns  speak  for  themselves,  and  they  express  nothing 
of  the  kind.  They  are  worthy  of  analysis.  The  compact  is  com- 
posed :  first,  of  a  Preamble  ;  second,  of  a  Covenant ;  and,  third, 
of  a  Provision  for  Autonomy. 

'Y\iQ  preambkQ^\d!\^j^i^^^^  which  the  signers  act : 

it  is  "the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  Sovereign  Lord  King 
James "  ;  and  (2)  the  objects  of  the  undertaking,  which  are  (a) 
**  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith," 
and  {h)  "  the  honor  of  our  king  and  country." 

Then  follows  the  covenant,  which  has  for  its  object  their  combi- 
nation "  together  into  a  civil  body  politick,"  and  which  expresses  ^ 
one  other  purpose  in  addition  to  the  two  specified  in  the  preamble ; 
namely,  {c)  "  our  better  ordering  and  preservation." 

Further  than  these  there  is  no  assertion  whatever  except  this, 
*'  and  by  virtue  hereof  [we]  do  enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such 
just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices, 
from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient 
for  the  general  good  of  the  colony  :  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience."     This  last  clause  may  be  re- 

*Mr.  Justice  Story,  "Commentaries  on  the  Constitution,"  ch.  iii,  sect.  55. 


86  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

garded  as  an  assertion  of  autonomy  ;  but  whether  that  autonomy 
is  to  be  aristocratic,  oligarchical,  democratic,  or  composite,  is  not 
disclosed. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  subjects  of  a  monarch  undertaking  the 
planting  of  a  colony  for  (a)  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  faith  ;  {!?)  the  honor  of  king  and  country  ; 
and  {c)  their  own  better  ordering  and  preservation. 

III.  Is  a  democracy  to  be  deduced  by  reasonable  implication  7 
The  tenor  of  the  whole  instrument  taken  together  does  not  con- 
vey such  implication.  Certainly,  a  declaration  beginning  with  a 
solemn  assertion  that  the  parties  to  it  are  subjects  of  a  certain 
king,  and  ending  with  the  equally  solemn  avowal  that  the  enter- 
prise is  undertaken  for  the  honor  of  that  king  and  country,  con 
tains  nothing  from  which  a  democracy  can  be  deduced.  The  pre- 
sumption that  it  means  what  it  says  must  prevail — that  a  band  of 
monarchists  are  engaged  in  an  undertaking  by  which  they  hope 
and  intend  to  enlarge  the  dominion  and  power  of  their  monarchy. 
This  conclusion  established,  the  subsequent  clauses  must  be  in- 
terpreted by  it.  These  clauses,  however,  contain  nothing  but  the 
ordinary  language  which  any  body  of  men,  whether  from  an  au- 
tocracy, a  monarchy,  or  a  republic,  would  use  when  taking  the  first 
step  toward  organization  in  a  desert,  where  neither  civilization,  its 
laws,  nor  the  machinery  to  enforce  order  exist.  The  natural  in- 
terpretation, therefore,  gives  place  to  no  other,  and,  as  organic 
law,  the  compact  must  be  regarded  as  simply  a  first  step  to  order, 
and  one  which  serves  equally  to  the  establishment  of  a  republic, 
a  monarchy,  or  a  despotism. 

This  compact  is  justly  considered  of  the  highest  importance 
from  its  assertion  of  autonomy.  Farther  than  this,  however,  it 
demands  no  especial  regard  from  the  student  of  political  history. 
It  does  not  define  what  the  nature  of  this  autonomy  is  to  be  ;  in- 
deed, it  could  not  well  do  so,  and,  in  order  to  ascertain  that  nat- 
ure, we  are  left  to  the  time,  when,  under  the  force  of  self-develop- 
ment, the  character  of  the  autonomy  becomes  fixed  and  manifest. 
This  is  soon  effected,  and  the  result  is  any  thing  but  a  democracy. 
The  state  consisted  of  the  freemen  ;  the  freemen  were  the  adult 
male  members  of  the  church^;  the  legislature  consisted  of  the 

*  "  Not  a  fourth  part  of  the  adult  population  were  ever  members."  Hildreth, 
**  Hist.  U.  S.,"  rev.  ed.,  I,  chap.  vii. 


THE   PURITAN  MIGRATION,  8/ 

whole  body  of  freemen,  and  these  chose  the  governor.  Thus  the 
autonomy  was  built  upon  the  church  as  the  foundation.  In  spirit 
it  was  a  theocracy,  and  every  theocracy  is  of  the  essence  of  des- 
potism :  in  the  flesh  it  was  an  oligarchy  whose  invisible  Head  and 
Ruler  was  God,  who  spake  by  the  prophets,  and  whose  vicarious 
executive  force  in  the  commonwealth  was  the  clergy.*  A  despotic 
government,  it  was  soon  rent  by  dissension ;  an  intolerant  govern- 
ment, its  arrogance  disappeared  before  the  first  rays  of  freedom 
of  conscience  ;  an  ideal  government,  it  was  merely  that  dream  of 
the  enthusiast,  well  known  to  history,  of  which  in  our  times  no 
illustration  exists,  unless  it  be  found  in  the  Church  of  Latter  Day 
Saints,  or  Mormonism. 

Thus  it  is  seen,  that,  instead  of  being  of  the  essence  of  a  pure 
democracy,  the  compact  was  the  natural  expression  of  law  and 
order  simply,  and  that  the  autonomy  revealed  in  it  developed 
into  an  oligarchy.  This  it  did  with  startling  rapidity  ;  and,  if  a 
tree  is  to  be  known  by  its  fruits,  we  cannot  with  truth  apply  to 
the  seedling  planted  by  the  Pilgrims  any  democratic  attributes 
whatever. 

At  first  the  progress  of  the  colony  was  slow  ;  few  reinforcements 
arrived,  dissension  agitated  it,  and  its  foothold  was  in  every  way 
precarious.  Help,  however,  came  from  an  unexpected  quarter. 
Laud,  the  very  antichrist  himself,  unwittingly  did  for  the  colony 
what  it  could  not  do  for  itself  :  he  strengthened  it  with  numbers 
and  respectability.  The  Pilgrims  had  been  poor  and  of  small 
account,  but  a  different  class  of  men  was  now  to  shape  the  desti- 
nies of  the  settlements.  Laud  undertook  the  reactionary  work  of 
bringing  back  the  religion  of  the  kingdom  to  the  point  whence 
Puritanism  had  pushed  it.  This  brought  on  the  crisis,  and  those 
who  could  not  maintain  their  footing  against  the  combined  forces 
of  Church  and  State,  fled  across  the  waters.  Hence,  the  Puritan 
emigration,  which  sought  Boston  and  the  northern  shore  of  Massa- 

*  Forty  years  afterward,  Stuyvesant  thus  writes  :  "  The  colony  of  Boston  re- 
mains constant  to  its  old  maxim  of  a  free  state,  dependent  on  none  but  God," 
"Albany  Records,"  xviii,  124. 

*'  According  to  the  system  established  in  Massachusetts,  the  Church  and  State 
were  most  intimately  blended.  The  magistrates  and  General  Court,  aided  by 
the  advice  of  the  elders,  claimed  and  exercised  a  supreme  control  in  spiritual  as 
well  as  temporal  matters  ;  while  even  in  matters  purely  temporal,  the  elders 
were  consulted  on  all  important  questions."    Hild.,  "  Hist.  U.  S.,"  I,  chap.  vii. 


88  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

chusetts  Bay.  The  Pilgrim  or  Plymouth  settlement,  in  familiar 
language  became  "  the  Old  Colony,"  * 

The  emigrants  were  of  a  class  superior  to  their  predecessors  in 
the  Mayflower,  Like  them  they  were  God-fearing,  but  socially 
they  were  of  "  only  the  best  "  among  the  farmers  of  the  eastern 
counties  and  Lincolnshire.  Some  of  them  were  large  land- 
owners, others  were  professional  men  from  the  Inns  of  Court  and 
the  offices  of  physicians.  There  were  clergymen  of  renown,  like 
Cotton  ;  and  many,  very  many,  Avere  university  men.  Members 
of  the  highest  classes,  foreseeing  a  storm,  provided  themselves 
with  places  of  refuge  in  New  England,  should  events  compel  their 
flight.  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  and  Lord  Brooke,  at  one  time  con- 
templated removal  to  the  colony  ;  Hampden  made  a  purchase  on 
the  Narragansett,  and  Lord  Warwick  another  in  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut,  while  Sir  Harry  Vane  actually  came  over.  Win- 
throp's  party  was  shortly  followed  by  eight  hundred  souls  more, 
and  in  one  year  three  thousand  colonists  arrived  from  England. 
Between  the  sailing  of  Winthrop's  expedition  and  the  assembling 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  in  the  space,  that  is,  of  less  than  eleven 
years,  two  hundred  emigrant  ships  had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and 
more  than  twenty  thousand  English  people  had  found  a  refuge  in 
New  England.'* 

As  the  mass  of  the  colonists  was  intelligent,  sober,  and  indus- 
trious, so,  many  of  the  leaders  were  men  of  ability  and  learning. 
In  the  schools  and  universities  of  England  they  had  acquired  a 
familiarity  with  history  and  the  classics,  and  a  fondness  for  inquiry 
and  disputation  ;  and,  from  the  start,  they  brought  along  with 
them  their  private  collections  of  books,  which  the  impulse  of  tlie 
true  scholar,  to  impart  to  others  the  knowledge  he  has  gained, 
afterward  united  in  foundations  whence  have  since  arisen  the 
splendid  libraries  of  Yale  and  Harvard.  Nor  was  this  disposition 
confined  to  the  passive  acquisition  of  knowledge.  Their  resolu- 
tion and  the  activity  of  their  intellect  conquered   the  dialects  of 

*  "The  people  at  Plymouth  were  generally  Brownists,  or  of  the  more  rigid 
separatists  from  the  Church  of  England  ;  but  those  who  afterward  settled  at 
Boston,  like  the  other  Puritans,  lived  in  communion  with  the  Church,  though 
they  scrupled  conformity  to  several  of  the  ceremonies." — Neal's  "  Hist.  New 
England,"  etc.,  i,  130. 

"Johnson,  b.  i,  c.  xiv  ;  Josselyn's  "  New  England,"  258  ;  Dummer's  "  De- 
fence of  New  England  Charters"  ;  Hutchinson,  i,  91  ;  "  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Coll.,"  i,  xxiii ;    "  British  Empire  in  America,"  i,  372. 


THE  EARLY  PURITAN  A   REFORMER.  89 

the  savages  that  surrounded  them,  and  lighted  up  the  dark  re- 
cesses of  the  forest  with  rays  which  had  first  beamed  in  the  clois- 
ters of  Magdalen  and  Trinity. 

The  manners  and  habits  of  the  early  Puritans  fully  sustain  the 
assertion  that  they  then  belonged  to  those  who  were  simply  "  Re- 
formers." They  were  thoroughly  English  and  churchmanlike,  and 
bore  no  more  resemblance  to  the  habits  and  manners  of  the  later 
Puritans  than  the  ruddy  faces  and  genial  countenances  of  those 
whose  laces  and  flowing  locks  might  well  cause  them  to  pass  for 
cavaliers  of  the  days  of  Rupert,  do  to  the  pinched  and  sour  visages 
that  stare  from  the  ungainly  portraits  of  the  Barebones  and  Hasle- 
riggs.  The  gorgeous  colors  of  the  Elizabethan  age  had  given 
way  to  the  quiet  and  autumnal  tints  which  steal  over  the  scene 
when  glowing  fancy  yields  to  sober  meditation.  The  light  and 
airy  conceits  of  poetry,  the  magnificent  creations  of  the  drama,  the 
bold  adventure  of  the  mariner,  the  courtly  delicacy  of  intrigue,  all 
had  given  place  to  a  life  even  more  personal  and  emotional,  yet 
marked  by  an  abiding  sense  of  duty,  by  the  gravity  of  reflection, 
the  tranquillity  of  self-control,  and  the  quiet  dignity  of  thoroughly 
felt  and  thoroughly  appreciated  manhood.  The  heroic  age  was  at 
hand,  but  had  not  yet  come  :  still  the  Renaissance  had  done  its 
work,  and,  in  the  pursuit  of  perfect  truth,  men  now  turned  from 
the  cold  contemplation  of  perfect  beauty  to  the  soul-absorbing 
contemplation  of  God  in  self. 

An  unutterable  dislike  of  the  Church  of  Rome  pervaded  all 
classes  of  Protestant  England.  Clergy  and  laity  alike  showed 
their  repugnance  to  those  usages  which,  having  descended  from 
the  Roman  Church,  savored  of  Romish  superstition.*  The  country 
gentlemen,  with  Burleigh  at  their  head,  remonstrated  against  the 
measures  which  expelled  from  their  charges  those  clergymen  who 
declined  to  subscribe  the  Three  Articles,  and  showed  their  restive- 
ness  on  the  subject  by  a  protest,  in  Parliament,  which  had  the 
approval  of  a  number  of  the  Queen's  own  Councillors.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  while  the  same  men  so  far  supported  reform,  as 
to  indulge  a  sympathy  which  raised  the  Presbyterians  from  an 
obscure  sect  to  a  party,  they  by  no  means  nourished  an  antago- 
nism to  the  Established  Church.  They  welcomed  the  appearance 
of  the  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  wherein  the  judicious  Hooker  ap- 

'  Strype's  **  Whitgift,"  157. 


90  CONSTITUTIONAL    LIBERTY. 

pealed  to  the  common-sense  and  loyalty  of  Englishmen  against 
the  gloomy  and  despotic  theology  of  Cartwright ;  they  even  ap- 
proved of  the  latter's  expulsion  from  his  chair  in  Cambridge,  and 
placidly  acquiesced  in  the  expedients  which  checked  the  Presby- 
terian movement.  At  that  time  Puritan  and  Presbyterian  were 
two  wholly  different  beings,  though,  unquestionably,  the  Presby- 
terian had  more  or  less  of  the  Puritan's  sympathy.  The  latter 
lent  his  countenance,  if  he  did  not  his  support,  and,  under  the 
influence  of  a  sympathy  rather  felt  than  seen  the  cause  of  Pres- 
byterianism  was  strengthened,  and  a  new  sect,  called  the  Inde- 
pendents, moreover,  rose  into  existence.  These  Independents 
were  the  outgrowth  of  a  handful  of  zealots,  called  Brownists, 
and  who  were  unconnected  with  the  Puritans  or  the  Presby- 
terians. For  a  time  they  were  called  Separatists,  from  their 
absenting  themselves  from  public  worship  on  the  ground  that 
any  national  church  was  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God.  It 
was  this  sect  that  sought  a  refuge  in  Holland,  and  which  after- 
ward founded  the  colony  of  Plymouth  in  New  England.  At  the 
period  of  their  leaving  England,  religious  opinion,  outside  of  the 
Roman  Church,  might  thus  be  classified  : — High  Church,  Puritan 
or  Low  Church,  Presbyterian,  and  Independent.  Of  these,  the 
last-named  was  the  one  whose  hand  was  against  every  one,  and 
against  whom  the  hand  of  every  one  was  raised.  It  is  a  common 
error  to  class  "  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  with  "  the  Puritan  Fathers  "  ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  an  error,  for  when  the  Independents  left 
home,  the  Puritans  were  still  within  the  limits  of  the  Church  cf 
England,  while  the  Independents,  or  Brownists,  were  outside  of 
and  hostile  to  it.  The  Puritans  were  not,  at  that  time,  a  sect,  nor 
were  they  much  more  than  a  class.  They  were  members  of  the 
Established  Church,  and  they  regarded  the  Independents  as  so 
many  contumacious  sectaries,  in  respect  to  whom  the  country  was 
better  off  without  than  with  them.  In  after  times,  Puritanism 
supplied  New  England  with  colonists  ;  but  "  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  " 
were  not  Puritans,  and  it  is  a  violation  of  historical  truth  to  so  call 
them. 

The  Puritan  of  the  days  of  James  the  First  was  a  man  who 
looked  with  horror  on  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  with  contempt 
on  the  Brownists.  The  sectaries  were,  to  him,  a  tribe  of  fanatics, 
whose  only  business  in  life  was  to  deny  the  rightfulness  of  every 


DISSENT  AN  AFTERSTEP.  9^ 

thing  which  preceding  generations  had  established,  and  which  he 
himself  was  glad  to  swear  he  would  maintain  ;  they  were,  in 
short,  almost  as  bad  as  atheists,  and,  moreover,  were  of  such  low 
extraction,  and  of  such  offensive  manners,  as  to  shock  every  in- 
stinct that  an  educated  and  well-bred  Englishman  could  fall  heir 
to.  As  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  was  the  scarlet  woman  ;  the 
embodiment  of  every  superstition  ;  the  impersonation  of  every 
thing  hostile  to  freedom  of  intellect  and  purity  of  soul.  For  the 
High  Churchman,  indeed,  the  early  Puritan  had  the  contemptuous 
pity  of  one  who  sees  an  erring  comrade  approach,  in  spite  of  every 
warning,  too  near  the  practices  of  the  enemy  ;  and  for  the  Lati- 
tudinarian,  he  had  the  same  sympathetic  solicitude  which  one  has 
for  a  brother,  who,  heedless  of  the  recalling  voice,  is  wandering 
too  far  from  the  paternal  standard.  But  from  neither  the  High 
Churchman  nor  from  the  Latitudinarian  was  he  yet  estranged. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  same  body  with  themselves,  and,  in  re- 
spect to  that  body,  no  notion  of  dissent  had  yet  crossed  his  mind. 
With  him  reformation  preceded  dissent  ;  he  was  first  a  Reformer, 
then  a  Dissenter.  It  was  only  when,  long  afterward,  his  efforts 
toward  ecclesiastical  perfecting  were  thwarted,  and  he  himself  pro- 
scribed by  the  one  brother,  that  he  followed  the  other,  and  that 
both  joined  company  with  the  heretical  Independents,  whose  native 
antagonism  at  last  showed  itself  in  a  hostility  which  culminated  in 
the  downfall  of  both  Puritan  and  Presbyterian. 

Coming  hither  when  and  as  it  did,  the  result  of  this  later  emi- 
gration was  Puritanism  in  all  its  simplicity,  and  as  a  distinct  sect 
in  doctrine,  though  politically  subordinate  to  the  Establishment. 
The  royalists  and  churchmen  had  no  motive  to  emigrate,  and, 
therefore,  stayed  at  home  ;  but  the  Puritans  had  such  a  motive,  and 
hence  it  was  they  who  came  over.  Had  the  Puritans  not  regarded 
England  as  the  dominions  of  Giant  Grim,  had  they  not  looked 
upon  the  ocean  as  a  highway  of  escape,  and  the  possessions  in 
America  as  places  of  refuge,  and,  above  all,  had  they  not  been 
actuated  by  the  motive  of  getting  somewhere  where  they  would  be 
let  alone,  they  would  have  stayed  where  they  were,  and  America 
would  have  remained  a  wilderness  until  commercial  adventure,  or 
some  other  equally  exciting  cause,  had  peopled  its  deserts.  Or, 
while  yet  in  England,  had  the  Puritans  been  strong  in  numbers 
and  in  organization,  and  had  they,  at  that  time,  been  able  to  dis- 


92  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

play  their  strength  sufficiently  to  excite  in  their  adversaries  any 
more  unfriendly  disposition  than  a  desire  to  simply  be  rid  of  them, 
then,  in  that  event,  in  order  to  achieve  their  design  of  coloniza- 
tion, they  might  have  been  forced  into  a  bargain  with  the  crown, 
which  would  have  precluded  the  establishment  of  Puritanism  pure 
and  simple  in  the  West,  even  were  the  Church  debarred  from  mo- 
lesting it.  But  the  fact  is,  the  colonization  of  New  England  is 
due  to  these  facts  :  first,  the  Puritans  beheld  there  the  peace 
which  at  home  was  neither  afforded  by  the  present  nor  prom- 
ised by  the  future  ;  and,  second,  the  State,  which,  for  awhile  hesi- 
tating, was  at  last  glad  to  get  rid  of  them,  and,  by  so  doing,  to 
extend  her  dominion  in  the  new  commonwealths  they  were  cer- 
tain to  erect.  The  voluntary  exile  of  one  of  the  parties  thus 
gratified  both. 

It  was  thus,  that,  upon  the  dissolution  of  the  Parliament  of 
1629,  the  real  Puritan  emigration  began,  and,  though  composed 
of  a  class  much  more  respectable  in  the  social  scale,  was  im- 
pelled hither  by  the  same  motive  that  had  urged  the  Brownists 
or  Pilgrims — namely,  the  desire  to  be  where  they  would  be  let 
alone. 

A  notion  exists  in  these  times,  that  the  Puritans  came  to  America 
for  the  purpose  of  founding  free  states  for  posterity,  of  establish- 
ing religious  freedom  for  all,  and  of  opening  the  gates  of  the  New 
World  to  the  oppressed  of  every  people.  This,  however,  is  but 
the  offspring  of  the  same  pious  delusion  which  led  the  Greeks  to 
see  demigods  in  their  ancestors,  and  the  Romans  to  deduce  their 
lineage  from  heroes.  A  few  expressions,  scattered  here  and  there, 
may  countenance  the  supposition  that  the  most  sanguine  among 
them  indulged  the  thought  that  posterity  might  regard  them  as 
founders  of  states,  but  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  they  landed 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  building  another  Troy  in  Latium. 
They  builded  better  than  they  knew,  and  there  is  nothing  what- 
ever to  show  that  they  were  animated  by  any  higher  impulse  than 
the  desire  to  get  away  from  human  society  ;  a  motive  hardly  to 
be  classed  as  heroic.  The  more  remote  and  secluded  the  retreat, 
the  less  inviting  and  accessible  it  was  to  the  ungodly,  the  better  it 
was  for  the  saints.  Such  disposition  to  seclusion  might  be  par- 
doned as  a  consequence  of  persecution,  were  it  not  that  the  inten- 
tion to  exclude  the  rest  of  the  world  betrays  itself  at  the  first 


UNSOCIAL    SPIRIT  OF   THE  PURITANS.  93 

opportunity  in  full  force  and  vigor.  This  unsocial  spirit  is  shown, 
not  only  by  their  express  avowals,  but  by  their  legislation,  which 
had  for  one  of  its  chief  objects  the  exclusion  of  all  who  did  not 
think  as  they  thought,  nor  do  as  they  did,  and  the  expulsion  of 
any  backslider  who  presumed  to  differ  from  or  even  doubt  their 
tenets  as  a  peculiar  people.  In  fact  they  held  themselves  out  to 
the  world  as  a  close  corporation,  which  under  no  circumstances 
would  tolerate  the  intrusion  of  others  or  the  presence  of  the  dis- 
affected.* What,  moreover,  disproves  any  intention  on  the  part 
of  the  mass  of  the  colonists  to  act  the  part  of  founders  of  new 
states,  is  the  fact  that,  before  Strafford's  head  was  fairly  off  his 
shoulders,  the  moment  the  Puritans  obtained  the  upper  hand  in 
England  and  could  make  their  neighbors  feel  the  intolerance  they 
themselves  had  been  protesting  against,  from  that  moment  (1640) 
the  colony  was  left  to  its  natural  increase,  emigration  ceased,  and, 
worse  still,  the  colonists  began  to  return  to  the  mother-country. 
The  heroic  work  of  founding  states  for  posterity  was  dropped  for 
that  of  uprooting  the  one  which  had  come  down  to  them  from 
their  fathers. 

Nor  do  the  character  of  the  colonists  and  the  conditions  under 
which  they  sailed  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  they  came  with  the 
purpose  of  planting  anew  the  tree  of  liberty,  which,  under  their 
culture,  was  to  blossom  as  it  never  had  done  before.  They  were 
monarchists,  from  Winthrop,  who  was  moreover  a  conformist, 
down  to  the  humblest  follower.  They  were  members  of  a  corpo- 
ration emanating,  like  all  others,  from  the  throne,  and  which,  like 
every  other  corporation,  was  amenable  to  the  laws  of  England. 
Their  charter  did  not  grant  religious  toleration,  nor  a  jot  of  civil 
liberty  beyond  what  existed  at  home,  and  as  the  emigrants  sailed 
under  its  solemnly  accepted  provisions,  civil  tyranny  could  scarce- 
ly have  become  intolerable,  nor  could  the  sacred  fire  of  liberty 
have  burned  very  fiercely  in  the  breasts  of  those  who  subscribed 
it.      In  fact,  for  years  their  condition  was  too  feeble  to  permit 

'  Bancroft  well  says  :  "  The  emigrants  were  not  so  mucn  a  u.^.y  jjunuc  a.-,  a 
church  in  the  wilderness." — "Hist.  U.  S.,"i,  348.  Roger  Williams  was  the 
twentieth  person  ordered  out  of  Massachusetts  within  the  first  seven  years  of  its 
existence. — Dexter,  "As  to  Roger  Williams,"  17  ;  and  further  respecting  exclu- 
sion, see  id,,  139,  140,  and  "  Lowell  Lectures  (Joel  Parker)  Mass.  Hist.  Soc," 
418;  also  "Home"  Poetical  Works  of  Ray  Palmer,  138.  For  Hst  of  New 
England  officers  that  served  under  the  Parliament  and  Cromwell,  see  Halibur- 
ton's  "  Rule  and  Misrule  of  the  English  in  America." 


94  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

their  indulging  dreams  of  a  freedom,  of  which,  moreover,  their 
acts  and  utterances  show  they  had  not  the  faintest  idea.* 

Freedom,  and  the  notions  of  it,  came  to  the  colonies,  as  it  comes 
to  all  bodies  politic  ;  that  is  to  say,  by  the  process  of  natural  de- 
velopment. It  is  the  product  of  necessity  rather  than  of  the 
dreams  of  enthusiasts.  When  the  colony  had  so  waxed  in  strength 
and  stature  as  to  be  conscious  of  its  ability  to  take  care  of  itself, 
then  only,  and  not  till  then,  do  we  hear  voices  declaring  the  good- 
ness of  liberty,  and  a  determination  to  have  it ;  but  even  then, 
these  notions  of  liberty  seemed  to  be  confined  entirely  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  liberties  specified  in  their  charter,  and  the  idea  of 
independence  to  be  satisfied  by  less  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  home  government  in  their  domestic  affairs.  It  was  not  until 
after  the  cessation  of  immigration,  not  until  the  colony  had  the 
assurance  of  experience  that  it  could  stand  alone,  and  not 
until  the  Parliament  was  so  hampered  by  civil  discord  that  it 
could  not  resent  assumption, — it  was  not  till  then  that  we  hear  any 
thing  like  independence.  Then,  indeed,  following  out  the  natural 
law  of  development,  the  General  Court,  or  Legislature,  summoned 
up  enough  resolution  to  declare'  that  "plantations  are  above  the 
rank  of  an  ordinary  corporation,"  and  that  "  colonies  are  the 
foundations  of  great  commonwealths " ;  but  down  to  that  time 
(1646),  all  utterance  is  limited  by  thankfulness  for  their  happy 
escape  from  religious  oppression,  of  joy  at  being  able  at  last  to 
worship  God  in  their  own  way  and  free  from  intrusion,  and  of 
reverence  for  a  charter  which  had  made  them,  to  their  great  con- 
tent, members  of  an  "ordinary  corporation"  indeed.  In  short, 
there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  they  came  over  with  any  loftier 
purpose  than  to  get  away  from  the  world  and  to  find  an  asylum 
where  their  peculiar  tenets  could  have  free  scope  and  action  ;  and 
the  thought  of  assuming  a  nobler  political  character  than  the  one 
they  had  always  borne,  or  of  securing  civil  liberty  for  future  gene- 
rations, does  not  seem  to  have  crossed  their  minds,  nor  to  have 
interrupted  for  a  moment  the  play  of  the  fanaticism  they  had 
braved   the  dangers  of  the   ocean  to  enjoy.     If  there  were   any 

*  "  A  royal  donation  under  the  great  seal  is  the  greatest  security  that  may  be 
had  in  human  affairs.  *  *  *  God  knows  our  greatest  ambition  is  to  live  a 
quiet  life  in  a  corner  of  the  world.  We  came  not  into  this  wilderness  to  seek 
great  things  to  ourselves." — Address  to  Charles  II,  a.d.  1644. 

'  See  "  Remonstrance  to  the  Long  Parliament,"  and  note  supxi. 


HISTORICAL  PLAN  OF  DEVELOPMENT,  95 

thing  of  the  kind,  they  left  it  for  those  to  accomplish  who  had 
stayed  behind,  and  it  was  with  shrewd  delight  that  they  accepted 
a  charter,  which,  while  it  allowed  freedom  of  worship  to  them- 
selves, permitted  them,  nevertheless,  to  exclude  the  ungodly  from 
their  midst,  and  with  them  all  their  unhallowed  joys.  It  was 
not  civil  liberty  they  sought,  but  full  play  of  their  religious  no- 
tions/ 

It  is  well  for  a  people  when  they  can  show  that  they  have  trans- 
mitted in  purity  the  social  forces  of  the  vigorous  and  sensible  race 
from  which  they  sprung,  and  that  they  have  faithfully  pursued  the 
plan  of  development  imposed  upon  them  by  natural  law.  No 
people  can  do  better  than  to  live  naturally,  and  they  who  have 
done  this,  the  hardest  of  all  things  for  men  or  states,  are  entitled 
to  the  praise  of  mankind,  be  the  motives  of  their  origin  what  they 
may — whether  they  were  led  to  found  the  new  state  from  the 
necessity  of  escaping  from  slavery,  like  the  Israelites  ;  from  the 
need  of  defensive  combination,  like  the  Romans  ;  from  the  crowd- 
ing of  excessive  population,  like  the  Franks ;  from  the  desire  to 
worship  God  in  their  own  way,  like  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
Maryland  and  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts ;  or  even  by  the  lust 
of  conquest  or  the  dread  of  their  fellow-creatures,  like  the  Span- 
iards in  Central  America  or  the  mutineers  of  the  Bounty. 

It  is  certainly  pleasing  to  liken  the  rise  of  our  own  people  to 
that  of  the  sun,  who,  by  his  rays,  chases  away  the  darkness  which 
covered  the  land,  and  warms  into  activity  the  teeming  life,  which 
unto  his  coming  had  lain  dormant.  The  fancy  glows  with  the 
colors  of  the  new-born  day.  But,  after  all,  the  pleasure  is  as 
fleeting  as  the  hues  of  morning,  and  the  mind  receives  greater 
satisfaction  in  comparing  the  growth  of  the  state  with  that  of  the 
oak,  which,  growing  with  its  growth  and  strengthening  with  its 
strength,  at  last,  "  moored  in  the  rifted  rock,"  spreads  abroad  its 
arms  in  hospitable  shelter,  and  raises  its  head  alike  careless  of  the 
summer's  gust  or  the  winter's  storm.     No  one,  looking  at  it,  asks 

*'*We  now  enjoy  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  not  that  enough?" — Win- 
throp.  "  I  shall  call  that  my  country  where  I  may  most  glorify  God  and  enjoy 
the  presence  of  my  dearest  friends." — Id.  "New  England  was  a  religious 
plantation,  not  a  plantation  for  trade."  *  *  *  "We  all  came  into  these 
parts  of  America  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  and  peace." 
*  *  *  "  New  England  was  the  colony  of  conscience." — Extracts  from  Puri- 
tan authorities,  cited  in  Bancroft,  i,  464  ;  see  further,  siarsim,  "As  to  Roger 
Williams." 


96  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

where  it  is,  or  how  it  got  there,  so  long  as  the  glorious  object 
confronts  the  gaze.  It  may  have  been  planted  by  a  king  from  the 
acorns  of  Boscobel,  or  dropped  by  a  quarry  as  he  turned  from  the 
eagle's  stroke.  There,  however,  it  stands  ;  it  is  enough  that  it  is 
one  of  the  perfect  works  of  nature,  and  that,  as  such,  men  turn  to 
it  with  pleasure  and  take  delight  in  its  perfection. 

So  with  the  rise  and  growth  of  peoples  ;  and  the  only  mode  of 
ascertaining  the  true  greatness  and  well-being  of  a  people,  is  not 
by  observing  the  circumstances  of  its  origin,  but  by  observing  its 
growth.  If  a  people  has  steadily  developed  according  to  the  laws 
of  nature,  then  it  may  be  taken  for  granted,  that  it  has  been 
worthily  fulfilling  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  created.  It  has 
been  doing  good  to  its  neighbors  as  well  as  to  itself,  and  in  ful- 
filling this  double  object  consists  the  true  well-being  of  nations. 
But  if  it  has  not  developed  according  to  natural  law,  then  it  may 
be  as  safely  assumed,  that  it  has  not  been  subserving  the  purposes 
of  its  being,  and  that  it  has  not  achieved  true  greatness.  And  so 
sure  as  the  individual  betrays  upon  his  person  the  scarred  protests 
of  outraged  nature,  so  sure  do  states  display  in  their  condition 
the  revenge  of  natural  law  violated.  It  is,  then,  from  understand- 
ing distinctly  that  states  are  planted  and  grow  by  a  natural  law 
which  cannot  be  evaded  with  impunity,  that  we  are  to  start  on  an 
investigation  which  is  to  lead  us  to  a  true  conclusion  respecting 
them.  That  law  being  clearly  understood,  we  can  easily  judge 
of  the  true  character  of  a  people,  by  observing  whether  they  have 
obeyed  or  resisted  its  authority  ;  for,  where  it  has  freedom  of 
action,  compliance  or  non-compliance  with  it  will  indicate  a 
healthy  or  unhealthy  condition  of  the  state. 

Thus,  we  see  that  the  real  greatness  and  well-being  of  a  people 
is  affected  neither  one  way  or  the  other  by  the  motives  or  circum- 
stances of  that  people's  origin,  but  that  it  depends  solely  and 
entirely  on  their  conformity  or  nonconformity  with  the  natural 
law  of  development.  This  law  acts  in  the  same  way  everywhere — 
as  well  among  the  Esquimaux  as  among  the  English,  as  well 
among  the  Patagonians  as  among  the  French.  Its  operation  is 
affected  only  by  influences  with  which  the  God  of  Law  has  sur- 
rounded it,  as  those  of  climate  in  one  place,  soil  in  another,  race 
everywhere,  or  of  all  three  combined.  If  its  effects  are  not  so 
apparent  in  Terra  del  Fuego  as  in  Burgundy,  it  is  because  in  the 


ENGLISH  DEVELOPMENT,  97 

former  region  it  is  met  and  overcome  by  other  forces  which  the 
plan  of  nature  has  designed  should  limit  its  action  in  that  locality. 
If  its  effects  are  more  apparent  in  England  than  in  Labrador,  it 
is  because  that  same  controlling  power  of  nature  has  lessened 
opposition  to  it,  and  has  assigned  that  locality  as  one  of  the  thea- 
tres of  its  greatest  activity.  No  one  will  dispute  that  the  force 
which  expands  the  Victoria  Regia  on  the  Senegambia  is  the  same 
as  that  which  covers  the  rocks  of  Greenland  with  lichen.  It  is 
the  same  force  in  both  places,  acting  in  the  same  way,  but  varying 
in  results  as  the  conditions  differ  under  which  it  exerts  its  powers. 

Viewing  this  law  of  development,  then,  in  its  actual  operation 
on  the  Caucasian  race,  and  particularly  on  our  own  tribe,  our 
history  shows  that  it  is  slow  of  action  ;  that  at  times  it  acts  spas- 
modically ;  but  that,  taking  one  century  with  another,  its  advance 
is  startlingly  marked,  and  that,  so  far,  it  has  always  been  progres- 
sive among  the  English-speaking  societies.  If  we  go  no  further 
back  than  strictly  historical  times,  and  see  how  England  was  peo- 
pled, and  if  we  observe  the  subsequent  development  of  the  Eng- 
lish, it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  great  question  is  not  how 
they  were  planted,  but  how  they  have  developed.  What  have  they 
become,  what  have  they  done,  and  what  are  they  doing  ?  Apart 
from  the  consideration  of  race,  the  circumstances  attending  their 
settlement,  and  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  accomplished, 
have  nothing  to  do  with  our  estimate  of  them  as  a  people. 

Taking  the  English  for  an  example,  we  see  them  developing 
sometimes  rapidly,  sometimes  slowly,  but  still  steadily  developing. 
When  they  stand  still,  we  observe  that  it  is  from  such  reason  as 
the  exhaustion  caused  by  conquest  or  civil  strife,  the  operation  of 
bad  principles  in  Church  and  State,  or  the  destruction  caused  by 
pestilence  or  famine  ;  and  when  they  progress,  we  conclude,  what 
investigation  shows  us  to  be  the  case,  that  the  conquest  is  over, 
the  civil  war  ended,  the  bad  principles  are  eradicated,  and  the 
ravages  of  the  plagues  are  repaired.  Sooner  or  later,  the  losses 
are  made  good,  and  the  people  take  another  step  forward.  But, 
under  this  law  of  development,  even  in  its  best  estate,  the  growth 
of  a  great  principle  is  at  first  very  slow.  If,  for  instance,  we  fol- 
low the  course  taken  by  the  principle  of  Freedom  of  Conscience, 
we  shall  see,  that,  though  it  made  its  appearance  in  the  history  of 
England  as  far  back  as  the  twelfth  century,  it,  even  now,  has  not 


98  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

attained  its  full  development.  At  first,  those  who  broached  it  did 
not  know  what  they  were  doing.  Their  view  was  bounded  by  the 
walls  within  which  they  were  born,  and  their  aim  extended  no 
farther  than  a  reformation  of  the  evils  before  their  eyes.  Follow- 
ing it  along,  and  noting  only  the  most  striking  features  of  its 
growth,  we  next  observe  that  this  principle  had  developed  to  a 
remarkable  degree,  when  the  Reformation,  which  was  its  first 
great  result,  occurred  ;  but  that  even  then,  though  there  were  those 
who  recognized  it  as  a  principle  and  a  vital  social  force,  and  not 
only  advocated  but  died  for  it,  the  mass  of  Englishmen  were  blind 
to  its  very  existence,  and  that,  to  them,  the  Reformation  was  but 
the  mere  throwing  off  of  a  foreign  yoke.  After  that  event,  how- 
ever, and  as  a  consequence  of  it,  its  development  is  exceedingly 
rapid,  and  we  observe  that  it  has  extended  the  domain  of  its  strug- 
gle to  secular  affairs,  and  that  its  progress  is  attended  by  convul- 
sions which  not  only  rent  England  in  twain,  but  which  ultimately 
shook  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  peopled  a  continent  beyond  the 
ocean.  But  we  see,  too,  that,  though  by  this  time  the  church  was 
standing  on  its  defence  against  it,  though  the  state  was  attacking 
it  with  all  its  might,  and  though  society  was  stirred  by  it  to  its 
deepest  depths,  it  was,  nevertheless,  but  half  understood.  Men 
had  still  no  broader  notion  of  freedom  of  conscience  than  as  it 
affected  them  individually,  and  it  on  its  side  had  so  little  influence 
over  men  that  it  was  powerless  to  compel  them  to  share  with  their 
fellows  that  which  they  selfishly  sought  the  solitude  of  deserts  to 
enjoy.  The  people  evidently  had  not  yet  taken  it  home  to  their 
hearts,  and  were  not  yet  ready  to  assert  it  as  a  principle  ;  it  was 
still  nothing  more  than  the  meagre  doctrine  of  religious  toleration, 
and  so  little  was  it  a  social  force,  that  as  sect  after  sect  raised  its 
head  under  the  encouraging  help  it  extended  to  all,  no  sooner  did 
these  sects  get  a  footing  than  each  outvied  its  predecessors  in  in- 
tolerance. It  is  evident,  then,  that  religious  toleration  is  not  yet 
become  an  accepted  principle,  and  still  less  is  that  great  force,  of 
which  it  is  the  offspring,  freedom  of  conscience,  under  which  term 
is  to  be  included  also  freedom  of  thought.  But  to  complete  our 
observation,  we  next  behold  it  in  an  aggressive  attitude,  and  relig- 
ious toleration  not  only  asserts  its  existence,  but,  upon  its  imperi- 
ous demand,  obtains  recognition.  Henceforth  its  career  is  that 
cf  conquest. 


DEVELOPMENT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  99 

The  development  of  New  England  character  is  due,  first,  to  the 
original  vigor  and  expansive  force  of  the  race  blood  ;  and,  second, 
to  the  impulses  that  blood  received  from  the  new  conditions  under 
which  it  has  since  acted.  There  can  be  no  question,  that  to  the 
civil  and  religious  development  of  the  race  given  by  the  great 
strifes  of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  due  much  of  the  expansive 
force  since  so  marvellously  brought  into  action,  and  that  the  Puri- 
tanism which  started  the  England  of  to-day  on  her  career,  started 
also  the  northern  colonies  of  this  country  on  theirs,  and  is  actuat- 
ing the  States  which  succeeded  them  at  this  very  hour.  The  ear- 
lier stage  of  development  gave  the  force  necessary  to  the  existence 
of  the  later.  Its  nature  has  already  been  discussed,  and  how  the 
Puritanism  of  New  England  was  one  and  the  same  with  that  of 
Old  England,  has  already  been  disclosed.  Such  it  was,  though  in 
the  different  countries  it  met  with  different  fates.  In  one  country 
it  rushed  into  civil  strife,  and  though,  after  apparently  burning 
itself  out  in  the  flames  of  discord,  it  sank  into  the  ashes  of  a  cold 
and  icy  despotism,  it  yet  left  its  spirit  so  indissolubly  connected 
with  the  body  politic  as  to  forever  change  the  character  of  the 
people  and  of  the  state.  In  the  other,  unopposed  by  obstacles, 
its  career  has  been  one  of  peace  ;  for  the  conflict  of  the  colonists 
with  the  natives  neither  retarded  its  advance  nor  affected  its  char- 
acter. In  one,  its  history  was  eventful ;  in  the  other  it  was  un- 
eventful. Here  it  had  nothing  to  contend  with  but  itself,  as, 
progressing  under  the  inevitable  law  of  historical  development,  it 
continued  to  grow,  and  to  produce  from  time  to  time  new  sects 
and  new  ideas,  which,  struggling  for  existence  with  those  from 
which  they  sprung  and  with  each  other,  in  their  turn  produced 
others,  and  all  united  in  hurrying  it  along  to  still  further  ad- 
vances. 

The  early  history  of  Puritanism  in  this  country,  therefore,  is  un- 
eventful, and  of  interest  to  him  only  who  seeks  history  in  results 
rather  than  in  a  present  warfare  of  polemics.  He  who  wades 
through  the  dreary  annals  .of  our  early  Puritanical  history  has  little 
for  his  pains  but  the  husks  of  hard,  dry,  and  abstruse  disputations, 
and  the  worm-eaten  leaves  of  theological  controversaries  now  un- 
readable. Mute  records  of  a  psychological  condition  long  since 
passed  away,  they  are  impotent  to  excite  any  emotion  more  mov- 
ing  than  regret  that  intellectual  energy  so  great  should  ever  have 


100  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

been  wasted  on  subjects  so  insignificant,  and  the  sole  interest  they 
possess  is  that  which  draws  the  antiquary  to  even  the  most  worth- 
less palimpsest,  or  to  hieroglyphics  absolutely  undecipherable. 
These  piles  of  dust  and  ashes  serve  no  longer  any  purpose  but  to 
show  us  how  unsubstantial  were  the  phantoms  over  which  conflict- 
ing sects  once  tore  each  other  to  pieces. 

The  virulence  of  theological  strife  in  those  days  is  almost  in- 
credible. Still  it  is  accounted  for  when  we  reflect,  that,  consti- 
tuted as  society  was,  and  cut  off  as  it  was  from  ordinary  subjects 
of  contemplation  and  exercise,  the  mind  had  little  else  upon 
which  it  could  exert  its  powers  than  the  hair-splitting  distinctions 
of  theology.  Of  politics,  history-making,  and  philosophy  there 
was  little  ;  of  tradition  and  romance  there  was  nothing.  The 
novelist  and  the  poet*  of  later  days  have  beheld  in  the  quaint  and 
stilted  manners  of  those  times,  in  the  armed  worshippers,  and  in 
the  migrations  of  resolute  enthusiasts  forcing  their  way  through 
tangled  forests,  the  dreamy  beauty  half  revealed  through  the  mist 
that  always  rises  from  the  distant  past  ;  but  the  historic  pict- 
uresqueness  bestowed  by  marching  armies,  contending  hosts, 
dethroned  kings,  scattered  Parliaments  and  stern  dictators, 
is  altogether  wanting.  All  is  a  dead  level  of  polemics  unre- 
lieved by  art,  by  song,  by  literature,  or  by  war.  Even  of  arch- 
itectural monuments — the  first  expressions  of  new  civilization, 
and  of  which  there  were  examples  for  emulation,  few  and  scat- 
tered though  they  were,  in  the  solid  ruins  left  by  a  mysterious 
race  that  preceded  them — none  have  come  down  worthy  of  the 
name. 

Such  an  element  as  a  class  that  creates  solid  and  enduring  liter- 
ature, is  out  of  the  question  in  a  community  hardly  strong  enough 
to  stand  alone  ;  and  even  an  educated  class  is  not  to  be  expected. 
We  are  not  surprised,  then,  at  the  absence  of  a  literary  class,  but 
certainly  there  is  ground  for  astonishment  when  it  appears  that 
the  mass  of  this  singular  people  was  so  highly  educated  that  no 
distinction  on  the  score  of  education  can  be  drawn.  There  doubt- 
less was  an  uneducated  class,  but  it  is  too  insignificant  to  be  no- 
ticed, and  the  remarkable  phenomenon  exists  of  society  consisting 
entirely  of  the  learned  and  having  the  wilderness  for  its  habitation. 
After  the  Winthrop  immigration,  it  may  be  said,  that  for  two  gen- 

^  Hawthorne,  Longfellow,  and  imaginative  writers  of  New  England. 


LEARNING,  BUT   Nti) .  Lli^kBA  'f&Rk. '^  :  ^' '-  ^^  >^ ' \0\ 

erations  there  were  few  men  in  New  England  who  were  not  edu- 
cated ;  for,  as  a  late  writer  remarks/  "  it  is  probable  that  between 
the  years  1630  and  1690,  there  were  in  New  England  as  many- 
graduates  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  as  could  be  found  in  any 
population  of  similar  size  in  the  mother-country.  At  one  time, 
during  the  first  part  of  that  period,  there  was  in  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  a  Cambridge  graduate  for  every  two  hundred  and 
fifty  inhabitants,  besides  sons  of  Oxford  not  a  few."  Such  being 
the  case,  the  colonists  were  probably  the  most  educated  body  of 
people  ever  beheld,  and  not  the  least  singular  element  of  the  sin- 
gular spectacle  they  presented  to  the  world,  was  the  extremely 
flourishing  condition  of  classical  knowledge  in  what  was  in  reality 
a  howling  wilderness.  Greek,  though  cultivated,  was  less  known 
than  Latin,  but  Latin  was  there,  as  in  the  Old  World,  the  language 
of  the  learned.  Hebrew  was  diligently  studied.  Of  course  divin- 
ity flourished,  and  that  was  the  great  difficulty  of  the  day  and  of 
the  people — it  flourished  too  much.  The  State  being  an  oligarchy, 
of  which  the  clergy  formed  the  ruling  class,  every  energy  was  bent 
to  secure  a  position  in  that  class,  and  there  was  not  a  matron  but 
hoped  to  live  long  enough  to  see  her  favorite  son  "  wag  his  pow 
in  the  pulpit."  That  pious  spectacle  enjoyed,  earth  had  no  great- 
er bliss,  and  the  happy  mother  could  die  content.  As  the  clergy 
absorbed  every  aspiration  and  every  energy  of  the  better  sort,  it 
is  natural  that  the  feeble  attempts  at  literature  which  expressed 
the  independence  of  a  few  resolute  minds,  should  be  drowned  in 
the  deluge  of  profitless  and  windy  disputation  which  marked  the 
sacred  rage  of  the  day.  Moreover,  there,  as  everywhere  else 
where  priestcraft  has  had  its  way,  the  clergy  were  averse  to  a  lit- 
erature which  did  not  emanate  from  themselves  :  it  was  they,  and 
no  others,  who  were  to  feed  the  lambs,  and  the  bold  layman  who 
raised  his  voice  was  eyed  askance  as  one  who  infringed  upon  their 
sacred  rights,  then,  as  an  intruder,  he  was  made  to  feel  that  he 
was  not  at  home,  and,  lastly,  as  an  enemy  he  was  stifled  or  ex- 
pelled. The  clerical  odium  of  freedom  of  conscience  has  always 
been  extremely  hostile  to  literature,  whose  greatest  achievements, 
since  the  decline  of  monachism,  when  it  escaped  from  the  mon- 
asteries into  the  world,  have  been  in  spite  of  the  clergy  and  not 
with  their  concurrence.  The  gloomy  despotism  of  the  New  Eng- 
*  Tyler,  "  Hist.  Am.  Lit.,"  i,  98. 


lo^  \ :  J ^^ ;  :.^ J .  ^ i:oi\isjYf'ii7[WArAL  liberty. 

land  oligarchy  did  not  belie  this  universal  disposition,  and  the  in- 
dependence of  thought  essential  to  healthy  literature,  when  not 
plucked  up  by  the  roots,  attained,  to  say  the  most,  a  precarious 
existence  under  its  dark  shadow.  Accordingly,  we  find  hardly 
any  thing  worthy  the  name  of  literature,  and,  of  a  consequence, 
where  there  was  no  literature  there  could  be  no  literary  class.  The 
description  that  may  be  given  of  the  Puritanical  literature  of  Old 
England  applies  with  redoubled  force  to  that  of  the  New.  It  con- 
stitutes a  weary,  hopeless  desert,  in  which  the  few  stunted  growths 
that  raise  their  heads,  serve  only  to  render  more  dismal  the  dreary 
waste  around  them. 

But,  in  the  steadfast  search  after  results,  we  cannot  rest  con- 
tented with  showing  what  this  general  love  and  exercise  of  dis- 
putation did  not  do.  It  is  not  enough  to  note  that  it  smothered 
any  rising  efforts  toward  profane  literature,  or  that  it  failed  to 
yield,  on  the  instant,  good  fruits.  In  fact,  even  had  it  not  pos- 
sessed the  land  to  the  exclusion  of  every  thing  else  intellectual,  it 
is  hardly  probable  that  a  people,  few  in  number,  widely  scattered, 
and  whose  days  were  devoted  to  a  conflict  with  the  elements  for 
mere  existence,  could  have  given  the  world  any  literature  worth 
speaking  of,  be  the  other  circumstances  of  their  condition  what 
they  might.  There  is  nothing  in  the  intellectual  life  of  man 
unworthy  of  observation  ;  nothing,  indeed,  that  should  not  be  the 
subject  of  profound  study.  And  so  with  this  century  of  disputa- 
tion. The  deserts  have  their  uses,  and  this  apparently  intellec- 
tual waste,  on  its  part,  effectually  served  great  ends.  If  we  re- 
gard, as  we  should,  the  growth  of  a  people  as  a  composite  fact,  in 
which  one  of  the  details  is  but  a  step  to  something  better,  we 
must  accept,  without  cavil,  the  conclusion,  that  in  the  plan  of 
historical  development,  every  phenomenon  is  a  natural  expression 
of  design  ;  has,  or  has  had,  its  uses  ;  and  is,  or  has  been,  neces- 
sary to  the  fulness  of  that  growth.  In  thus  regarding  the  intellec- 
tual life  of  these  colonies,  the  eye  is  at  once  arrested  by  the 
continued  and  long-sustained  epoch  of  religious  disputation,  and, 
as  the  beholder  stands  amazed  at  the  marvel  of  a  wilderness  re- 
sounding with  the  accents  of  what  would  be  foreign  to  any  place 
but  the  Sorbonne,  the  Synod,  or  at  least  the  schools  ;  as  he  gazes 
in  bewilderment  at  the  spectacle  of  men,  who,  carrying  their  lives 
in  their  hands,  seek   refreshment,  after  the   labor   of   subduing 


AN  ERA    OF  DISPUTATION.  IO3 

savages  and  breaking  the  stubborn  soil,  in  acrimonious  debate  on 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  he  naturally  inquires,  on  gaining 
breath,  For  what  good  purpose  can  all  this  be  ?  The  question 
would  have  been  difficult  to  answer  in  those  days,  but  with  the 
results  before  us,  the  place  this  era  of  disputation  filled  in  the 
formation  of  American  character,  is  readily  seen — it  did  for  New 
England  what  the  disputation  of  the  schoolmen  did  for  western 
Europe.  In  the  days  of  inexorable  physical  toil,  it  served  to 
render  men's  minds  acute ;  it  kept  alive  the  learning  they 
brought  with  them,  and  it  stimulated  the  love  of  letters  in  a 
people  who,  cast  upon  a  rocky  coast,  might,  otherwise,  have  been 
called  upon  to  witness  their  intellectual  life  hopelessly  sinking 
under  the  unequal  contest  it  was  compelled  to  wage  with  the  hard 
and  brutalizing  forces  of  nature.  It  helped  to  conquer  those 
forces,  and  was  the  only  discipline  which,  under  the  peculiar 
constitution  of  this  branch  of  society,  the  public  mind  could  re- 
ceive. It  is  true,  that  the  first  thing  these  people  did,  was  to 
organize  a  system  of  schools,  with  a  college  for  its  head  ;  but  a 
little  reflection  will  show  us,  what  the  recorded  facts  do,  that,  from 
the  force  of  circumstances,  many  years  must  have  elapsed  before 
this  system  could  become  a  self-sustaining,  active,  vitalizing  social 
force.  For  a  long  time,  in  fact,  those  who  could  afford  it,  sent 
their  sons  back  to  England  to  be  educated.  In  the  meantime, 
what  other  field  had  this  strange  community  to  exercise  its  intel- 
lect upon  ?  It  was  a  colony  of  religious  enthusiasts  ;  its  govern- 
ment was  that  of  a  religious  oligarchy  ;  its  State-house  was  the 
meeting-house  ;  religion  was  what  brought  them  to  that  desert, 
and  religion  it  was  that  was  the  very  marrow  of  their  bones.  Cut 
off  such  a  community  from  the  world  ;  put  it  on  the  island  of 
Juan  Fernandez,  and  what  would  be  the  natural  field  of  its  public 
life  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  what  actually  occurred  in  the 
New  England  colonies.  The  intellectual  life  of  the  public  ex- 
pressed itself  solely  on  religious  subjects,  the  only  ones  it  had  at 
hand  ;  and,  where  no  hierarchical  organization  exists,  no  liturgy, 
no  ecclesiastical  system,  in  a  word,  no  church,  but  merely  a  band 
of  religious  enthusiasts,  the  intellectual  life  of  religion  universally 
expresses  itself  in  long  prayers,  long  sermons,  and  tedious  dis- 
putations in  the  shape  of  debates  in  synod,  in  tracts,  in  essays, 


X04  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

and  in  books.'  So  with  the  colonists,  and,  in  the  plan  of  histori- 
cal development,  we  must  ascribe  this  sway  of  the  dialecticians  to 
the  thirst  a  youthful  society  felt  for  an  outward  expression  of 
their  intellectual  life,  the  necessity  of  substituting  the  best  make- 
shift for  the  means  of  education  which  were  wanting,  and  the 
desire  of  stimulating  the  love  of  learning.  That  this  was  the  part 
performed,  is  shown  by  the  fact,  that  as  society  advanced  and 
the  means  of  education  became  abundant  and  of  easy  application, 
theological  disputation  faded  away  ;  the  meeting-house,  as  a  place 
of  assembly,  was  dropped  for  the  school-house  ;  the  lawyers 
pushed  aside  the  preachers,  and  the  conflicts  of  the  pulpit  gave 
way  to  those  of  the  courts  and  of  the  debating  society — an  insti- 
tution, for  such  it  is,  which,  having  its  origin  in  those  disputatious 
days,  still  keeps  its  place  with  tenacity  in  every  school-house  of 
the  North,  and  to  which,  far  more  than  has  been  attributed  to  it, 
are  due  some  of  the  most  peculiar  traits  of  our  people. 

Were  we  to  confine  ourselves  to  noticing  the  effects  of  this 
wordy  theology  on  the  study  of  divinity  and  metaphysics  in  New 
England,  we  should  find  ample  excuse  for  its  existence  in  the 
known  influence  exerted  by  it  in  the  discipline  it  wrought  on  the 
great  mind  of  Jonathan  Edwards.'  But  its  effects  have  reached 
further,  and  have  been  more  broadly  extended,  than  can  be  dis- 
played  in  the   works  of  one  man.     They  extend   to  the  present 

^  The  prayers  were  hours  long.  See  instance  of  one  of  two  hours'  length, 
quoted  from  Sibley's  "  Ilarv.  Grad."  in  Tyler,  i,  189,  190.  The  sermons  were 
longer  still.  Id.,  id.  As  to  books,  essays,  etc.,  the  fecundity  was  simply  won- 
derful. John  Cotton  wrote  books  by  the  dozen.  Tyler  gives  some  of  their 
names,  from  which  I  extract  a  few  :  "Of  the  Holiness  of  Church  Members  "  ; 
**  The  Keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  "  ;  "A  Modest  and  Clear  Answer  to 
Mr.  Ball's  Discourse  of  Set  Forms  of  Prayer";  "Spiritual  Milk  for  Babes  " ; 
"A  Treatise  of  the  Covenant  of  Grace  as  it  is  Dispensed  to  the  Elect  Seed." 
Roger  Williams  wrote  a  book,  the  title  of  which  was,  "  The  Bloody  Tenet  of 
Persecution  for  cause  of  Conscience,"  which  Cotton  answered  with,  "  The 
Bloody  Tenet  washed  and  made  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb  "  ;  to  which 
Williams  rejoined,  "  The  Bloody  Tenet  yet  more  Bloody,  by  Mr.  Cotton's  En- 
deavor to  wash  it  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb."  This  apparently  silenced 
Cotton.  Another  Williams'  title  is,  "  George  Fox  digged  out  of  his  Burrowe  " 
— disputing  Quakerism.  But,  in  fecundity,  the  ineffectual  stars  of  these 
worthies  pale  before  that  of  Cotton's  grandson.  Cotton  Mather.  This  man 
actually  wrote  more  than  three  hundred  and  eighty  separate  works  (Tyler,  ii, 
79).  In  one  year,  besides  doing  the  work  of  his  pastorate,  keeping  sixty  fasts 
and  twenty  vigils,  he  published  fcnirteen  books.  The  fasts,  vigils,  and  the 
books,  all  told,  surpass  any  thing  the  monks  can  show. 

'From  a  single  one  of  Thomas  Shepard's  books,  Jonathan  Edwards,  it  is 
said,  drew  nearly  a  hundred  citations  for  his  celebrated  "  Treatise  concerning 
Religious  Affections." — Tyler,  i,  207. 


SECULAR  DEBATE.  10$ 

day,  and  their  influence  is  now  felt  by  millions.  The  secession, 
or  rather  the  expulsion,  of  Roger  Williams  let  loose  the  flood- 
gates of  controversy,  and  turned  the  attention  of  the  colonists 
from  mere  theological  questions  to  those  which  savored  of  the 
secular.  The  tide  once  turned,  it  pursued  its  course,  and  as  dia- 
lectics subsided,  reflections  on  the  abstract  principles  of  liberty, 
the  fondness  for  discussing  which  is  so  prominent  a  feature  of 
the  Northerner,  usurped  their  places.  The  science  of  politics  is 
a  practical  one,  and  none  have  applied  the  principles  of  liberty 
more  practically  than  the  New  Englander.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  while  he  acts  practically,  no  one  delights  more  in  the  ab- 
stractions of  that  subject  than  he.  When  the  disputation  of  the 
pulpit  died  away,  secular  debate  took  its  place,  and,  without  yield- 
ing their  love  of  abstractions,  the  theories  of  political  life  took  the 
place  of  theological  dogmas.  Every  American  can  recall  the  time, 
when,  a  beardless  boy,  he  harangued  his  debating-society  on  the 
exceeding  great  glory  of  liberty,  the  different  modes  of  govern- 
ment, the  distinction  between  the  several  kinds  of  law,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  moral  and  the  municipal ;  and  can  remember,  as  of  but 
yesterday,  when  he  discussed,  with  the  ease  which  only  the  assur- 
ance of  youth  can  give,  questions  before  which  Plato  and  Machi- 
avel  gave  up  the  ghost  in  despair.  The  effect  of  such  discussions 
on  the  youth  of  a  republic  is  simply  incalculable.  Though  it 
may  be  adverse  to  depth  and  thoroughness,  it  certainly  produces 
familiarity  with  the  subject,  and  a  confidence  which  is  of  all  im- 
portance to  one  who,  from  the  mere  fact  that  he  is  a  voter,  is,  in  a 
certain  sense,  a  legislator.  Without  laying  this  national  tendency 
entirely  at  the  door  of  a  Massachusetts  conventicle,  it  is  neverthe- 
less the  fact,  that  this  latent  tendency  was,  as  far  as  New  England 
is  concerned,  warmed  into  life  by  it,  and  that  these  discussions 
can  be  followed  back  in  an  unbroken  stream  to  the  times  when 
secular  and  forensic  debate  rose  on  the  ruins  of  its  progenitor, 
the  theological  disputation  of  the  Puritan  divines. 

Such  was  one  of  the  effects  of  the  early  controversial  theology 
of  New  England.  It  intensified  in  the  breasts  of  one  of  the  most 
practical  people  on  earth  a  love  of  abstraction,  and  aroused  a 
fondness  for  discussing  the  abstract  principles  of  liberty,  which 
might  have  been  often  tempered  by  them  to  their  benefit,  but 
which  has  never  left  them. 


I06  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

The  pent-up  enthusiasm  and  mental  activity  of  the  colonists 
had  not  long  to  wait  before  the  sluices  were  opened,  and  the  life- 
giving  flood  was  suffered  to  pour  over  the  fields.  It  was  in  the 
earliest  days  of  the  Boston  settlement  that  there  appeared  a  man 
about  whom  his  fellow-colonists  had  much  to  say,  and  in  whom 
posterity  still  takes  the  deepest  interest.  This  interest  is  not  mis- 
placed, and  the  character  and  the  career  of  Roger  Williams  merit 
all  the  attention  given  them  ;  for,  before  Richelieu  had  laid  the 
axe  to  the  root  of  intolerance  in  France  by  making  the  church 
secondary  to  the  state  ;  before  Descartes  had  parted  his  lips  with 
the  utterance  Cogito^  ergo  suniy  which  prepared  the  way  for  free- 
dom of  thought  by  recognizing  the  importance  of  the  individual  ; 
before  the  Baconian  philosophy  had  given  new  direction  to  in- 
quiry, this  man  had  maintained  that  free  religion  and  freedom  of 
thought  were  essential  elements  of  the  body  politic  ;  and  while 
Europe  was  yet  the  battlefield  where  contending  creeds  strove 
for  mastery,  and  while  Protestantism,  dead  to  noble  impulses,  was 
sunk  into  drivelling  disputation,  and  faith  everywhere  betrayed  no 
force  other  than  what  lay  in  the  gripe  of  intolerance,  then  it  was 
that  the  voice  of  Roger  Williams  was  heard  in  the  wilderness  cry- 
ing truths  which  were  to  be  thenceforth  accepted  by  the  world  as 
vital  forces  of  social,  religious,  and  political  life. 

Freedom  of  conscience,  until  his  time,  had  been  regarded  as  a 
dream,  or  entertained  only  as  a  theory  ;  after  his  time  it  was  a 
positive,  substantial  fact.  His  work  in  life  seems  to  have  been 
that  of  transforming  this  sentiment  into  a  living  force,  and  to  him 
is  due  the  honor  of  being  the  first  who  recognized  it  as  a  consti- 
tutional principle,  and  who  actually  erected  a  polity  that  had  it  for 
a  foundation-stone.  The  effect  of  this  action  is  incalculable  ; 
but  it  is  enough  to  say,  that,  from  that  moment,  a  new  force  was 
infused  into  American  life,  and  that  the  Americans  then  began  to 
assume  the  character  which  distinguishes  them  to-day.  The  es- 
tablishment of  freedom  of  conscience  as  a  constitutional  element 
of  the  body  politic  effected,  sooner  or  later,  a  total  change  in  the 
character  of  American  society.  The  Englishmen  in  America  be- 
gan to  cease  being  such,  and  to  put  on  new  armor  that  had  been 
welded  on  the  spot,  and,  after  the  lapse  of  two  centuries  and  more, 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  style  the  man  who  brought  this  transfor- 
mation to  pass,  the  First  of  the  Americans. 


ROGER    WILLIAMS.  10/ 

Roger  Williams  was  probably  a  Welchman,  who  had  drifted  to 
London,  where  he  attracted  the  attention  of  no  less  a  person  than 
Sir  Edward  Coke.  There  must  have  been  something  powerfully 
attractive  in  him  to  kindle  the  sympathy  of  that  dry  and  crabbed 
lawyer,  but  so  it  was,  and 'Coke's  interest  being  happily  of  the 
practical  sort,  exercised  itself  in  giving  the  lad  an  education.  He 
first  procured  him  admission  to  what  is  now  known  as  the  Charter- 
house, or  Blue  Coat  School,  and  afterward  had  him  entered  at 
Pembroke  College,  Cambridge.  The  world  has  never  been  in 
haste  to  ascribe  excessive  goodness  of  heart  to  Coke,  and  it  may 
be  that  to  his  sagacity  rather  than  to  sympathy,  is  due  the  foresight 
which  detected  greatness  in  Williams,  and  the  kindness  that  fos- 
tered him  :  but  whatever  the  motive,  it  was  a  good  one,  and  to 
Coke  must  be  assigned  the  credit  of  having  given  to  the  world 
one  of  its  foremost  men. 

After  he  had  taken  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  his  whole 
view  of  religion,  and  particularly,  of  the  relations  which  religion 
ought  to  hold  toward  the  conscience  of  the  individual  and  the 
powers  of  the  State,  underwent  a  radical  change.  He  could  no 
longer  subscribe  the  Articles  of  Faith,  and,  cutting  loose  from  the 
Church,  he  became  a  Puritan,  or  rather,  as  the  term  meant  in 
those  early  days,  a  Reformer  ;  and  a  reformer  he  certainly  was 
in  every  sense  of  the  word  that  is  good  and  noble.  At  last,  his 
safety  being  threatened,  flight  was  the  only  thing  left  him,  and  so, 
without  having  time  to  say  farewell  to  his  benefactor,  he  shook 
the  dust  of  England  from  off  his  feet,  and  bent  his  way  toward 
Massachusetts. 

When  he  reached  America  he  was  about  thirty  years  of  age. 
His  mind  was  active  and  clear,  and  he  reasoned  well ;  he  had 
studied  hard,  and  was  learned  ;  he  had  thought  much,  and  was  a 
man  of  opinions  ;  he  had  sought  light,  and  had  convictions  ;  he 
was  ambitious,  resolute,  courageous,  and  of  inflexible  will ;  he  had 
winning  manners,^  and  being  of  an  amiable,  sociable  disposition, 
was  born  to  persuade  men — yet  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  set 
them  against  him. 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  short  career  which  terminated  in 

^  "A  man  lovely  in  his  carriage." — Edward  Winslow,  "  Hypocrisy  Unmasked," 
65.  The  New  England  literature  of  the  time  teems  with  Roger  Williams  ;  but 
for  a  modern  view  of  him.  and  for  citation  of  authorities,  consult  Dexter's  *'  As 
to  Roger  Williams,"  though  not  written  in  a  very  friendly  spirit. 


I08  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

the  expulsion  of  Williams  from  the  infant  settlements  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  and  the  agitation  caused  by  his  abrupt  departure 
does  not  seem  even  yet  to  have  entirely  subsided.  It  has  not  in 
itself,  however,  greater  importance  than  any  event  has  which  may 
be  regarded  as  the  first  step  from  which  great  results  have  flowed, 
and  it  may  be  dismissed  after  a  brief  consideration. 

The  facts  of  the  case  are  few  and  simple,  and  the  affair  may  be 
summarily  described  as  follows  : — Roger  Williams,  a  licensed 
member  of  a  hierarchy,  and  an  accepted  member  of  an  oligarchy, 
conscientiously  made  use  of  his  position  to  preach  doctrines  which 
were  viewed  by  the  hierarchy  as  heretical,  and  by  the  oligarchy  as 
seditious.  For  such  offence  he  was  conscientiously  tried,  con- 
victed, and  sentenced.  Before  the  sentence  was  executed,  and 
while  it  was  yet  held  in  suspense,  he  contumaciously  repeated  the 
offence,  and  the  indignation  of  the  authorities  being  thus  excited, 
he  deemed  it  best  to  flee  the  colony ;  and  this  he  did. 

The  part  performed  by  those  who  sat  in  judgment  on  him  is 
perfectly  intelligible.  The  colonists  had  sought  seclusion  for  the 
very  purpose  of  enjoying  their  peculiar  tenets  unmolested,  and  to 
effect  this  purpose  the  corporation  of  which  they  were  members 
was  rendered  a  close  one  to  those  outside  and  a  disciplinary  body 
to  those  within.  From  circumstances  and  from  the  charter,  civil 
power  was  lodged  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  mem- 
bers, and  from  their  character  and  disposition  this  power  was 
allied  with,  and  was  made  subservient  to  the  ecclesiastical  power. 
There  being  but  one  creed  the  result  was  an  oligarchy.  Those 
were  the  days  when  the  union  of  Church  and  State  seemed  natu- 
ral, and,  in  this  respect,  if  the  colonists  were  no  better  they  were 
not  much  worse  than  the  most  civilized  communities  of  their  day. 
By  the  standard  of  their  times  must  they  be  judged,  for  it  would 
be  unreasonable  to  exact  of  a  community  that  it  should  reflect 
greater  light  than  what  was  shed  upon  it.  If,  then,  the  Puritans 
are  to  be  censured,  they  must  be  so  for  the  oligarchy  which  they 
erected,  and  for  exacting  and  excessive  exercise  of  a  principle  at 
that  time  universally  admitted  to  be  true  ;  but  for  the  principle 
itself  they  cannot  be  held  responsible,  however  false  it  may  be, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  not  in  their  power  to  know  better.  No  Roger 
Williams  had  yet  taught  them  better  things  ;  for  his  ideas,  still 
confused,  half-formed,  and  urged  with  hysterical  energy,  had  not 


THE  PURITANICAL    VIEW  OF  HIS  CASE.  lOQ 

assumed  the  harmonious  and  systematic  shape  in  which  we  be- 
hold them,  nor  were  they  presented  as  those  which  had  been  tried 
by  experience  ;  and  they  lacked  the  self-asserting  force  that  time 
only  can  give  to  doctrine.  The  admitted  fact,  that  Williams  was 
in  advance  of  the  age,  blunts  of  itself  the  edge  of  censure,  which 
must  be  reserved  for  the  descendants  of  these  Puritans,  who 
maintained  this  principle  long  after  Williams  and  his  disciples 
had  exposed  its  fallacy,  and  long  after  freedom  of  conscience  had 
displayed  its  surpassing  worth  and  set  them  a  bright  example  in 
other  communities.  It  is  not  strange  that,  wanting  the  power  of 
vision  to  discern  in  the  new  light  which  broke  so  abruptly  upon 
their  eye  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  and  better  day  than  that  in  which 
they  were  groping,  the  colonists  should  behold  in  a  rising  sun 
only  another  of  the  many  false  lights  which  had  already  to  their 
sorrow  gone  out  in  utter  darkness.  To  us  their  error  may  be 
plain  enough,  but  it  must  be  admitted,  that,  from  their  standpoint, 
and  it  was  the  only  one  they  had,  they  acted  rationally  and  dis- 
played a  sense  of  duty  in  promptly  resisting  innovations  which 
threatened  to  unsettle  their  faith  and  to  disturb  the  repose  they 
were  bound  as  trustees  to  do  their  utmost  to  maintain.  To  a 
people  who  regarded  reverence  for  the  king  as  a  virtue  second 
only  to  reverence  for  God,  and  to  whose  existence  it  was  essential 
that  the  ground  they  stood  upon  should  be  theirs, — to  such  a 
people,  the  assertion  that  the  appellation  of  "most  Christian  king" 
conveyed  a  falsehood,  and  the  denial  of  their  patent's  validity 
implied  in  the  proposition  that  the  Indian  title  never  had  been 
and  never  could  be  divested  by  an  alien,  even  though  he  were  the 
King  of  England,  were  serious  and  shocking  things  which  com- 
bined within  them  disloyalty  to  the  crown  and  hostility  to  the 
settlement  :  and  what  could  be  more  abominable  and  monstrous 
to  those  to  whom  the  union  of  Church  and  State  seemed  natural, 
and  who  were  themselves  oligarchists,  than  the  denial  that  the 
Establishment  was  a  church,  and  that  the  civil  power  had  nothing 
to  do  with  executing  its  decrees,  even  if  it  were  ?  In  fact,  when 
we  consider  what  the  age  was,  and  how  far  Williams  was  in 
advance  of  it,  we  have  no  right  to  be  astonished  at  the  course 
taken  by  the  colonists  in  his  case,  nor  is  there  ground  for  censur- 
ing them  ;  the  less  so,  as  the  more  conscientious  they  were,  the 
more  relentless  they  had  to  be,  their  principles  being  accepted  as 


no  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

true.  In  this  matter  of  the  trial  of  Roger  Williams,  the  party 
really  deserving  censure  seems  rather  to  be  the  one  that  dis- 
played so  little  tact  and  judgment  as  to  force  food  upon  those 
whose  stomachs  were  not  strong  enough  to  bear  it,  and  to  be  he 
who  showed  so  little  knowledge  of  mankind  as  to  attempt  by 
assault  the  demolition  of  prejudices  which  can  be  dislodged  only 
by  gradual  and  persistent  approach/  In  the  moral  order  of 
things,  nothing,  except  truth  itself,  has  such  vitality  as  prejudice 
or  is  so  tenacious  :  it  appears  in  the  same  guise,  it  flies  the  same 
banner,  it  wears  the  same  armor,  it  contends  for  the  same  ground, 
it  is  nerved  by  the  same  conscientiousness,  and  all  it  lacks  of  be- 
ing the  same  thing  is  having  the  same  soul. 

The  trial  of  Roger  Williams  will  ever  retain  its  deep  significance 
from  the  fact,  that  one  of  the  charges  against  him  was,  that  he 
maintained  "  that  the  civil  Magistrates*  power  extends  only  to  the 
Bodies  and  Goods,  and  outward  State  of  men."  It  may  be,  as  Cot- 
ton says,  that  this,  though  charged,  was  not  one  of  the  reasons  for 
Williams'  banishment  ;  but  the  fact  that  at  this  time,  and  in  this 
place,  the  subject  was  a  point  of  such  variance  between  the  parties 
as  to  be  made  by  one  of  them  a  charge  against  the  other  more 
than  smacking  of  criminality,  has  a  significance  which  the  reasons 
Cotton  assigns  for  its  not  being  a  cause  of  expulsion  only  empha- 
size :  "  There  are  many  known  to  hold  both  these  opinions  [one 
of  these  is  that  here  given],  *  *  *  and  yet  they  are  tolerated 
not  only  to  live  in  the  Commonwealth,  but  also  in  the  fellowship 
of  the  Churches  "  ;  which  is  not  a  denial  that  such  charge  was 
made,  but  an  argument  that  it  could  not  have  affected  the  ver- 
dict. 

Such  being  the  case,  several  things  are  evident :  (i)  That  tol- 
eration, though  not  accepted  by  the  community  as  such,  was  en- 
tertained by  "many"  members  of  that  community;  (2)  that  it 
seems  to  have  so  far  made  its  way,  that  its  existence  in  the  breasts 
of  individuals  was  "  tolerated "  by  the  Commonwealth  and  the 
Churches  ;  and  (3)  that  it  had  assumed  such  proportions  and  had 
become  so  formidable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
Churches  as  to  justify  the  censure  and  the  attitude  of  hostility  to 
it  involved  in  so  solemn  an  act  as  an  indictment,  or  what  was 
equivalent  to  one. 

^  For  a  different  view  of  this  subject,  see  Appendix  C. 


A   NEW  FORCE  IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  1 1 1 

These  facts  being  apparent,  it  is  manifest  that  this  event  did  in- 
volve the  principle  of  intolerance,  and  thereby  the  union  of  Church 
and  State  (for  the  term  "  Commonwealth  and  Churches  "  is  but 
another  way  of  saying  "  Church  and  State"),  and  that  Williams' 
preaching  had  struck  at  its  root.  For,  otherwise,  wherefore  the 
necessity  of  contradiction,  which  the  trial  itself  on  such  a  charge 
implies,  or  of  evasion,  v/hich  the  denial  of  its  being  a  cause  of 
banishment  is  after  it  was  officially  stated  to  be  such  during  the 
sentence  ? 

It  has  been  already  laid  down  in  another  part  of  this  work,*  as 
a  rule  whereby  to  ascertain  the  existence  of  toleration  or  intol- 
erance, that,  where  the  civil  power  is  made  subservient  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical in  the  prescription  of  doctrine^  the  maintenance  of  discipline^  or 
the  extirpation  of  heresy^  there  is  intolerance  ;  where  it  is  not  so  sub- 
servient^ there  is  toleration.  Judged  by  this  rule,  the  Puritan  oli- 
garchy, like  many  a  better  organization  of  its  day,  was  intolerant. 
But  the  limitation  of  the  civil  power  to  "  the  outward  State  of 
men,"  so  insisted  upon  by  Williams,  does  not  suffer  that  power  to 
reach  their  inward  state,  or  conscience,  and  deprives  the  church 
of  the  power  to  regulate  faith  by  corporal  force.  This  is  tolera- 
tion, the  first  and  great  step  to  freedom  of  conscience.  Tolera- 
tion and  intolerance,  then,  met  each  other  at  this  trial  face  to  face. 
That  toleration  was  resisted  by  the  court,  or  evaded  by  others  as 
interested,  shows  with  equal  conclusiveness  that  it  was  involved 
in  the  issue  before  the  court  ;  that  Williams  then  fought,  or  stood 
ready  to  fight,  for  the  cause  of  Cotton's  ''many  known  to  hold 
[this]  opinion  "  ;  and  that  the  trial  is  justly,  as  it  is  generally, 
considered  to  be  the  point  whence  freedom  of  conscience  in  Amer- 
ica started  on  its  career  as  a  vital  and  aggressive  force. 

This  trial,  then,  is  important  in  showing  that  the  doctrine  of 
freedom  of  conscience  was  strong  and  bold  enough  in  the  settle- 
ments of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  the  year  1635,  to  struggle  for  a 
foothold  and  assert  its  existence  as  a  social  force,  and  that  it  then 
had  vitality  enough  when  worsted  in  one  locality  to  plant  itself 
successfully  in  another.  It  has  an  additional  value  to  the  observer 
in  this,  that  it  affords  a  historical  date  whence  the  career  of  that 
force  in  this  country  can  be  pursued,  and  that  it  offers  a  stand- 
ard whereby  its  attempts  and  success  in  other  communities  can 
be  measured. 

*  Page  62. 


112  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

The  doctrines  set  forth  by  Williams  at  Plymouth  and  Salem 
were  but  rudimental.  They  did  not  assume  the  form  of  a  system 
until  after  his  departure  from  Massachusetts,  and  until  he  had  a 
community  all  to  himself  upon  which  to  experiment.  His  progress 
of  thought  is  defaced  by  the  contradictions,  the  inconsistencies, 
the  impetuosity,  the  extravagance,  and  the  errors  to  which  all 
human  action  is  incident :  but  he  held  steadily  on  his  way, 
having  been  taught  the  bitter  lesson,  that,  no  matter  how  great 
the  inspiration  of  the  prophet,  truth  can  be  planted  in  the  hearts 
of  men  only  by  patience  in  well-doing.  Like  those  of  other  great 
thinkers,  his  steps  at  first  were  slow  and  halting  ;  he  himself  was 
restless  and  wayward  ;  but  as  experience  lent  him  confidence,  he 
walked  more  and  more  erect,  until  at  last,  when  he  felt  the  ground 
solid  beneath  his  tread,  he  bounded  eagerly  forward  into  the  newly 
discovered  realms  that  teemed  with  glorious  visions,  and  where 
truths,  like  Alp  on  Alp,  rose  before  him. 

Roger  Williams'  whole  being  was  possessed  by  the  one  great 
principle  that  the  soul  should  be  free,  and  he  was  wont  to  express 
his  heart's  aspiration  by  the  term  "  soul-liberty."  He  boldly  threw 
down  the  gauntlet  to  the  world,  by  announcing  that  soul-liberty 
was  of  God,  that  conscience  was  by  nature  free,  and  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  human  society  to  preserve  intact  that  freedom,  whereof 
the  least  violation  was  invariably  but  the  first  step  to  soul-bondage. 
The  conscience,  the  soul  of  man,  being  free,  no  limits  bounded 
that  freedom  but  those  set  by  the  Creator.  Of  a  consequence, 
any  limitation  imposed  on  the  conscience  of  one  man  by  another, 
was  an  interference  between  the  Creator  and  the  created  ;  it  was 
intolerance,  a  thing  altogether  abhorred  by  God  and  unjust  to  man. 
Religion  being  a  relation  that  existed  solely  between  the  Creator 
and  the  created,  God  was  the  only  judge  of  the  latter.  No  relig- 
ious organization,  then,  had  a  shadow  of  right  to  dictate  what  one 
should  think  or  what  one  should  do  in  matters  religious.  As  a 
necessary  deduction  from  this  conclusion,  no  such  right  existing, 
there  were  no  need  of  agents  to  enforce  the  observance  of  faith, 
nor  any  right  to  use  them.  Consequently,  the  use  of  the  civil 
jurisdiction  by  the  ecclesiastical,  and  the  subordination  of  the 
former  to  the  latter,  had  no  justification,  and  was,  in  fact,  a  mon- 
strous perversion  of  truth,  which  called  for  immediate  reformation. 

Thus,  at  one  blow,  Williams  would  have  cloven  the  Church  and 


DIVORCE   OF  CHURCH  AND   STATE.  II3 

State  asunder,  and  sponged  from  the  statute-roll  the  very  mention 
of  conformity  or  non-conformity.  Heresy,  with  him,  had  no  ex- 
istence, and,  carrying  his  doctrine  to  its  conclusion,  he  fearlessly 
asserted  that  compulsory  worship  of  God  was  an  abomination  ; 
that,  where  the  spirit  was  not  a  willing  one,  worship  compelled 
was  an  offence  to  the  Deity  ;  that  if  one  would  not  worship,  he 
should  not  be  made  to  do  so  ;  and  that  no  man  should  be  com- 
pelled to  support  any  religion  whatever,  least  of  all  one  in  which 
he  had  no  faith/ 

This  doctrine  overturned  the  intolerance  whereby  the  civil 
power  is  made  the  agent  of  the  ecclesiastical  in  the  prescription  of 
faith  and  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and  left  error  at  the  mercy  of 
the  only  power  that  can  combat  it — truth.  It  was  the  sentence  of 
divorce  between  Church  and  State,  and  it  ordained  that  neither 
should  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the  other,  further  than  extend- 
ing the  protection  under  which  the  latter  is  bound  to  shelter  every 
element  of  society  ;  yet  this  protection  was  to  be  given,  not  so 
much  to  the  institution,  as  to  the  worshipper,  in  whom  lay  the 
natural  right  to  freedom  of  conscience,  and,  consequently,  the  in- 
herent right  to  freedom  of  worship.  No  man  has  ever  had  a 
clearer  view  of  the  true  relations  existing  between  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  powers.  The  civil  magistrate,  he  says,  may  not  in- 
termeddle even  to  stop  a  church  from  apostacy  and  heresy  * 
*  *  his  power  extends  only  to  the  bodies  and  goods  and  out- 
ward estate  of  men.''  But  if  the  power  to  impose  a  style  of  wor- 
ship on  the  individual  was  denied,  nothing  could  be  more  posi- 
tive, nor  more  catholic,  than  the  emphasis  with  which  he  asserted 
the  duty  of  society  to  protect  the  consciences  of  its  members,  be 
who  and  what  they  may.  Jew  or  Gentile,  Christian,  Turk,  or 
Pagan,  all  were,  as  the  children  of  God,  alike  to  this  apostle  of 
liberty,'  who  would  have  men  learn  that  one  poor  lesson  of  setting 

^Bancroft,  i,  chap,  ix  :  "  No  one  should  be  bound,  to  worship,  or  to  main- 
tain a  worship  against  his  consent."  "Queries  of  Highest  Consideration": 
"  We  query  where  you  now  find  one  footstep,  print,  or  pattern,  in  this  doctrine 
of  the  Son  of  God,  for  a  national  church."  Again  :  "A  tenet  that  fights  against 
the  common  principles  of  all  civility,  and  the  very  civil  being  and  combinations 
of  men    *     *     *    by  commixing    *     *     *    a  spiritual  and  civil  state  together." 

'  Quoted  from  a  rare  tract  in   Bancroft,  i,  chap.  ix. 

*  "  It  is  the  will  and  command  of  God,  that  *  *  *  a  permission  of  the 
most  Paganish,  Turkish,  or  anti-Cliristian  consciences  and  worships  be  granted 
to  all  men,  in  all  nations  and  countries  ;  and  they  are  only  to  be  fought  against 
with  that  sword  which  is,  in  soul-matlers,  able  to  conquer,  to  wit,  the  sword  of 
God's  Spirit,  the  word  of  God."     Quoted  in  Tyler,  i,  254. 


114  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

absolutely  the  consciences  of  all  men  free/  and  who  would  have 
lifted  his  fellows  to  that  sublinne  height,  where  charity  forbids  per- 
secution, and  where  common-sense  disdains  it  as  a  confession  by 
error  of  the  truth  it  cannot  overcome.'' 

This  assertion  of  a  doctrine  which  placed  the  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical jurisdictions,  each  on  its  own  ground,  naturally  drew  at- 
tention to  the  nature  of  each,  and  the  just  relations  they  bore  one 
another.  Heretofore,  men  had  contemplated  them  in  unison, 
but  now  they  were  called  on  to  observe  them  separately,  and  as, 
to  the  mind's  eye,  the  State  now  stood  by  itself,  a  secular  tone 
henceforward  characterized  the  discussions  of  the  colonists.  What 
the  true  nature  of  government  was,  contested  the  ground  with 
questions  relating,  for  example,  to  the  efficacy  of  infant  baptism, 
and  the  mind  broadened  with  the  new  field  it  was  called  upon  to 
explore.  Williams  himself  profited  by  his  own  doctrine,  to 
which  he  was  ever  faithful,  and  as  he  ascended  height  after  height 
of  the  elevation  whither  it  led  him,  his  vision  became  clearer  and 
more  far-reaching,  until  at  last  the  ever-receding  horizon  embraced 
results,  of  which,  in  his  earlier  writings,  the  existence  does  not 
seem  to  be  suspected.  Doubtless,  at  first,  his  conception  of  his 
great  doctrine  was  limited  to  its  effects  upon  the  moral  and  men- 
tal condition  of  the  individual  only,  and  then  it  embraced  the 
religious  condition  of  society,  by  a  short  and  easily  taken  step. 
But  his  mind  expanded  with  the  glowing  years,  and  at  last  he 
views  its  effects  on  the  social  and  political  condition  of  the  State, 
and  of  the  whole  world.  To  us,  who  have  been  born  long  since 
intolerance  ceased  to  be  formidable  north  of  the  Alps  and  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  to  whom  the  effects  of  this  doctrine  are  more 
familiar  in  the  constitution  of  the  State  than  of  the  Church,  it 
seems  strange  that  his  ever-pushing  intellect  should  have  been 
so  slow  in  foreseeing  its  mightiest  conquests.  But  such  has 
been,  almost  always,  the  lot  of  those  from  whose  brain  great  ideas 

*"  The  Bloody  Tenet  yet  more  Bloody,  by  Mr.  Cotton's  Endeavor,"  etc. 

'  "  For  me,  I  must  profess,  while  heaven  and  earth  lasts,  that  no  one  tenet 
that  either  London,  England,  or  the  world  doth  harbor,  is  so  heretical,  blas- 
phemous, seditious,  and  dangerous  to  the  corporal,  to  the  spiritual,  to  the  pres- 
ent, to  the  eternal  good  of  men,  as  the  bloody  tenet  *  *  *  of  persecution 
for  cause  of  conscience." — Id.  " — a  monstrous  paradox,  that  God's  chil- 
dren should  persecute  God's  children."  *'  Narr.  Club  Pub.,"  i,  319.  "  Perse- 
cutors of  men's  bodies,  seldom  or  never  do  these  men's  souls  good."  Ibid.,  327- 
328. 


THE   SHIP   OF  STATE.  II5 

have  sprung  ;  they  have  had  to  live  up  to  them,  and,  though  their 
force  has  been  instantly  felt,  it  has  almost  invariably  taken  years 
for  their  creators  to  appreciate  their  compass.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, until  1652,  that  we  have  from  him  the  evidence  of  a  foresight 
embracing  the  last  measure  to  be  meted  out  by  the  doctrine  of 
freedom  of  conscience — to  be^  for  a  glance  shows  us  that  the  world 
is  still  far  from  the  point  his  vision  reached.  "  The  removal  of 
the  yoke  of  soul-oppression,"  ^  he  says,  "  as  it  will  prove  an  act  of 
mercy  and  righteousness  to  the  enslaved  nations,  so  it  is  of  bind- 
ing force  to  engage  the  whole  and  every  interest  and  conscience 
to  preserve  the  common  liberty  and  peace."  '  Thus  from  a  free 
conscience  he  advanced  to  a  state  of  society  where  peace  and 
good-will  should  dwell  among  men. 

He  was  no  dreamer,  but  a  doer  of  his  word.  He  was  thorough, 
and  when  a  principle  once  rose  from  the  depths  of  his  mind,  he 
made  no  toy  of  it,  but,  fixing  it  immovably  in  his  heart,  made  it 
part  and  parcel  of  his  being,  and  straightway  sought  the  means  of 
putting  it  in  force.  Thus,  he  had  not  been  long  in  the  land, 
before  the  condition   of  the  Indians  having  excited  his  benevo- 

'  "  The  Hireling  Ministry  none  of  Christ's,"  29. 

"  Here  may  be  given  his  admirable  description  of  a  commonwealth,  wherein 
the  distinction  of  Church  and  State  is  observed,  and  the  true  relations  they  bear 
to  one  another  are  set  forth.  It  contains,  in  petto,  his  whole  doctrine,  and  is 
taken  from  his  "  Letter  to  the  People  of  Providence,"  A.  D.,  1655. 

"  There  goes  many  a  ship  to  sea,  with  many  hundred  souls  in  one  ship, 
whose  weal  and  woe  is  common,  and  is  a  true  picture  of  a  commonwealth  or  a 
human  combination  or  society.  It  hath  fallen  out  sometimes  that  both  Papists 
and  Protestants,  Jews  and  Turks,  may  be  embarked  in  one  ship  ;  upon  which 
supposal  I  affirm,  that  all  the  liberty  of  conscience  that  ever  I  pleaded  for, 
turns  upon  these  two  hinges — that  none  of  the  Papists,  Protestants,  Jews,  or 
Turks,  be  forced  to  come  to  the  ship's  prayers  or  worship,  nor  compelled  from 
their  particular  prayers  or  worship,  if  they  practise  any.  I  further  add,  that  I 
never  denied  that,  notwithstanding  this  liberty,  the  commander  of  this  ship 
ought  to  command  the  ship's  course,  yea,  and  also  command  that  justice,  peace, 
and  sobriety  be  kept  and  practised,  both  among  the  seamen  and  all  the  pas- 
sengers. If  any  of  the  seamen  refuse  to  perform  their  services,  or  passengers 
to  pay  their  freight  ;  if  any  refuse  to  help,  in  person  or  purse,  toward  the  com- 
mon charges  or  defence  ;  if  any  refuse  to  obey  the  common  laws  and  orders  of 
the  ship,  concerning  their  common  peace  or  preservation  ;  if  any  shall  mutiny 
and  rise  up  against  their  commanders  and  officers  ;  if  any  should  preach  or 
write  that  there  ought  to  be  no  commanders  or  officers,  because  all  are  equal  in 
Christ,  therefore  no  masters,  nor  officers,  nor  laws,  nor  orders,  nor  corrections, 
nor  punishments  ; — I  say,  I  never  denied,  but  in  such  cases,  whatever  is  pre- 
tended, the  commander  or  commanders  may  judge,  resist,  compel,  and  punish 
such  transgressors,  according  to  their  deserts  and  merits.  This,  if  seriously  and 
honestly  minded,  may,  if  it  so  please  the  Father  of  Lights,  let  in  some  light  to 
such  as  willingly  shut  not  their  eyes." 


Il6  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

lence,  he  gave  himself  to  a  consideration  of  the  relations  in  which 
they  stood  to  the  colonists,  their  rights,  their  wrongs,  their  perils, 
and  their  safeguards.  The  result  of  it  was,  that  he  came  to  the 
same  conclusion  which  afterward  placed  William  Penn  among  the 
benefactors  of  mankind  : — that  whatever  rights  civilization  pos- 
sessed, ipso  facto,  over  the  unsettled  and  barbaric  parts  of  the 
earth,  it  had  no  right,  however  nomadic  or  savage  they  might  be, 
to  divest  the  title  to  the  soil  from  the  aborigines.  This  doctrine, 
it  may  easily  be  imagined,  gained  him  little  credit  with  his  neigh- 
bors, whose  self-interest  took  alarm  at  what  seemed  to  strike  at 
the  vitality  of  the  patent  to  their  lands,  and  the  vitality  of  their 
political  constitution.  But  the  good-will  he  lost  among  those  of 
his  own  race  was  compensated  by  that  of  the  race  to  be  benefited, 
and  when  he  was  flying  from  the  intolerance  of  one,  he  was  hos- 
pitably received  by  the  other.  To  his  dying  day  he  never  ceased 
to  be  grateful  for  the  help  then  extended,  and  in  his  later  years, 
he  tenderly  referred  to  it  by  saying,  "  The  ravens  fed  me  in  the 
wilderness."  Nor  did  he  content  himself  with  this  expression  of 
gratitude.  He  made  the  cause  of  the  Indians  his  own  ;  he  ad- 
vocated it  in  high  places,  and,  like  Eliot,  betaking  himself  to  the 
study  of  their  language,  he  ministered  unto  them  in  their  own 
tongue.  He,  on  his  part,  had  little  cause  to  accuse  them  of  in- 
gratitude. 

Roger  Williams  was  the  man  for  the  times  and  for  the  place. 
A  genius,  with  an  intellect  as  clear  as  it  was  fervid  ;  with  convic- 
tions so  intense  as  to  make  him  dare  all  to  enforce  them  ;  with 
those  convictions  broadened  by  great  knowledge  and  experience, 
tempered  by  never-failing  benevolence,  and  adapted,  as  the 
growth  of  surrounding  circumstances,  to  the  needs  of  the  com- 
munity ;  with  a  courage  that  laughed  at  wounds,  a  resolution 
which  never  faltered,  an  enthusiasm  which  never  failed,  a  good- 
nature which  softened  the  hearts  of  savages,  and  a  sincerity 
which  retained  for  him  the  respect  of  such  men  as  Winthrop; 
with  untiring  energy  and  a  robust  constitution,  he  was,  of  all 
men,  the  man  best  fitted  for  breaking  down  a  despotism,  establish- 
ing a  principle,  or  founding  a  State.  He  would  have  been  great 
anywhere.  He  would  have  made  a  name  for  himself  equally  in 
London,  as  in  Providence,  but  such  a  fame  as  he  deserves,  is  due 
only  to  one  who,  like  him,  has  not  only  planted  a  State,  but,  who 


FAITH   SEEKS  MARYLAND,  \\J 

has  forever  stamped  the  millions  that  populate  the  other  common- 
wealths of  his  race,  with  an  impress  all  his  own.  He  was  impul- 
sive, rugged,  earnest,  and  thorough.  Had  any  other  sort  of  man 
than  the  one  he  was,  ventured  to  do  what  he  did,  it  is  hardly 
probable,  that  the  work  of  his  lifetime  had  ever  been  accom- 
plished. The  iron  despotism  which  chilled  Massachusetts  might 
be  making  itself  felt  to-day ;  the  colony,  as  it  increased  in  num- 
bers, would  have  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  and,  instead  of  a 
commonwealth  whose  name  is  synonymous  with  all  that  is  good, 
intelligent,  charitable,  and  wise,  we  might  be  contemplating  a 
community,  the  very  name  of  which  would  strike  our  hearts  with 
the  chill  which  creeps  over  us  at  the  recollection  of  Rochelle, 
Drogheda,  Geneva,  the  Cevennes,  and  Piedmont.  Worse  than  this  : 
had  America,  instead  of  being  inspired  by  this  noble  impulse,  been 
indoctrinated  with  the  absolutism,  almost  Venetian,  then  existing, 
she  might  never  have  been  blessed  by  the  light  which  now  illumi- 
nates her  path  ;  and  freedom  of  conscience  and  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen,  the  two  kindred  principles  which  have  made  us  what  we 
are,  might  have  shaken  our  dust  from  off  their  feet,  or  passed  us 
by  as  unworthy  of  their  presence. 

The  doctrines  of  Williams,  in  the  course  of  events,  returned  to 
the  land  which  had  borne  him,  and  leavened  there,  also,  the  lump. 
Although  Williams  does  not  seem  to  have  produced  much  effect 
on  the  public  by  his  tracts  and  essays,  there  is  no  question  that 
the  advanced  position  taken  by  his  friends  Vane  and  the  poet 
Milton  was  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  his  personal  influence 
over  them  while  on  a  visit  to  England.  The  part  taken  by  both 
these  friends  in  behalf  of  freedom  of  conscience  is  too  well  known 
to  be  repeated.  They  not  only  brought  the  doctrine  before  the 
people  and  advocated  it,  but  they  rendered  the  subject  a  familiar 
one,  and,  having  paved  the  way  to  its  accomplishment  by  their 
speeches  and  writings,  trod  it  themselves. 

Faith  of  Maryland. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  Brownists,  or  Pilgrims,  and,  after 
them,  the  Puritans,  were  turning  their  eyes  toward  the  West  in 
wistful  search  of  a  place  of  shelter,  another  body  of  religionists, 
from  the  same  cause,  and  with  the  same  object,  were  doing  the 


118  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

same  thing.  The  Roman  Catholics,  persecuted  during  four  reigns, 
were  also  looking  across  the  Atlantic  for  a  haven  of  rest.  It  must 
be  said  to  their  praise  that  the  modes  by  which  they  sought  to 
effect  their  ends  have  shed  upon  the  colony  of  Maryland  a  dis- 
tinction which  increases  with  the  augmenting  appreciation  of  the 
principle  of  freedom  of  conscience,  which  everywhere  marks  the 
progress  of  modern  enlightenment. 

George  Calvert,  a  friend  of  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  was  a  native  of 
Yorkshire,  and  of  a  good  family.  Educated  at  Oxford,  he  was 
advanced  by  Cecil  in  public  life,  was  knighted,  and  became  one 
of  the  secretaries  of  state  ;  in  which  position  he  gained  reputa- 
tion with  the  people,  and  favor  with  the  king.  As  a  member  of 
Parliament,  he  was  thrown  into  the  whirlpool  of  the  rising  dis- 
cussion of  the  times,  but  being  a  thorough  adherent  of  stability 
in  matters  of  religion  and  state,  the  stronger  the  tempest  blew,  the 
more  tenaciously  he  clung  to  principles  that  were  defined,  and  to 
institutions  that  were  old  and  rooted.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
capacity  for  business,  of  a  clear  and  broad  intellect,  with  reflective 
habits,  and  of  a  warm  and  benevolent  disposition.  He  was  also 
a  man  of  resolution.  Aristocratic,  courtly,  urbane,  and  withal 
just ;  while,  in  common  with  Roger  Williams,  he  loved  truth  and 
hated  iniquity,  no  two  men  could  be  more  unlike.  They  sought 
their  ends  at  opposite  poles — one  left  the  Church  of  England  for 
Independency,  or  rationalism  ;  the  other  for  Roman  Catholicism, 
or  credulity  unqualified  :  both  share  the  glory  of  giving  freedom 
of  conscience  to  America, 

Under  the  law,  Calvert,  on  his  conversion,  had  to  resign  his 
place,  which,  with  its  great  emoluments,  was  cheerfully  abandoned 
by  one  to  whom  the  free  exercise  of  his  convictions  offered  greater 
wealth  ;  but  James  the  First,  always  kind  to  those  who  supported 
the  royal  prerogatives,  as  the  Catholics  unhesitatingly  did,  retained 
him  in  the  privy  council,  and,  as  a  mark  of  his  esteem,  and  as  a 
reward  for  faithful  service,  created  him  an  Irish  peer,  under  the 
title  of  Lord  Baltimore.  For  many  years  the  attention  of  Balti- 
more had  been  directed  toward  America — he  had  been  a  member 
of  the  Virginia  company, — and  he  had  gone  so  far  as  to  secure  a 
patent  for  a  portion  of  Newfoundland.*  The  poverty  of  the 
soil,  however,  and  the  severity  of  the  climate  had  no  compensation, 

^  It  is  narrated  that  he  twice  visited  that  coast. — Bancroft,  i,  chap.  vii. 


PR^MUNIRE.  1 19 

now  that  the  freedom  of  the  fisheries  was  established,  and  he 
abandoned  the  hopes  of  a  settlement  in  those  parts,  and  at  last 
gave  up  the  territory  itself,  and  turned  his  eyes  toward  Virginia. 

At  that  time  the  condition  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  England 
was  as  burdensome  as  intolerance  could  make  it.  It  was  hardly 
possible  for  one  of  that  belief  to  conform  to  the  rules  of  his  church  ; 
much  less  to  worship  God  in  his  own  way.  If  the  attempt  was 
made,  it  was  at  the  risk  of  the  pains  of  prcBmunire.  This  offence 
took  its  name  from  the  words  of  the  writ  preparatory  to  the  prose- 
cution thereof,^  which  warned  the  accused  to  appear  to  answer 
the  contempt  charged  ;  which  contempt  was  recited  in  the  pre- 
amble. It  took  its  original  from  the  exorbitant  power  formerly 
claimed  and  exercised  in  England  by  the  pope,  and  was,  in  the 
time  of  Lord  Baltimore,  almost  altogether  directed  against  the  vio- 
lations of  the  statutes  against  Papists,  When  we  learn  what 
some  of  those  statutes  were,  the  condition  of  a  Romanist  in 
England,  and  what  Calvert  had  to  face  in  order  to  become  one, 
may  be  easily  comprehended. 

To  refuse  the  oath  of  supremacy  incurred  the  penalty  oi  pra- 
munire^j  to  defend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  pope  within  the  realm 
was  2.  prcEtnunire  for  the  first  offence,  and  high  treason  for  the 
second ''  ;  to  import  any  agnus  Dei,  crosses,  beads,  or  other  super- 
stitious things  pretended  to  be  hallowed  by  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
or  to  tender  the  same,  or  to  receive  them  without  discovering  the 
offender,  and,  if  a  justice  of  the  peace,  not  to  declare  the  offence 
within  fourteen  days  to  a  privy  counsellor, — all  these  things  in- 
curred a  prcemumre.*  Importing  or  selling  mass-books,  or  other 
popish  books,  incurred  the  liability  to  a  fine.^  To  contribute  to  the 
maintenance  of  any  popish  seminary  whatever,  beyond  sea,  or  any 
person  in  the  same,  or  any  Jesuit  or  popish  priest  in  England,  was 
made  liable  to  the  pains  of  prcemunire.^  To  sue  to  Rome  for  any 
license  or  dispensation,  or  to  obey  any  process  from  thence,  was 
\.omcwx  2.  prcBmuni re.''  These  are  only  some  of  the  statutes  en- 
acted for  the  abolition  of  a  certain  religion.  The  Romanists  v/ere 
also  in  jeopardy,  moreover,  under  the  statutes  against  heresy,  and 
to  effect  this  end,  we  see  that  one  result  is  to  create,  and  set  apart 

'4  Blackstone's  "Comm.,"  103.      '5  Eliz.,  cap.  i.  ^ Ibid. 

*  13  Eliz.,  cap.  2.  ^3  Jac.  I,  cap.  5,  §  25.       ^27  Eliz.,  cap.  2. 

'  24  Hen.  VIII,  cap.  12  ;  and  25  Hen.  VIII,  cap.  ig  and  21. 


120  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

for  persecution,  a  special  class — to  wit,  the  adherents  of  that  re- 
ligion. Nothing  more  forcibly  illustrates  the  spirit  of  intolerance 
than  the  legislation  of  England  against  the  Romanists,  unless  it 
be  the  course  of  the  Roman  church  itself  against  heretics,  and 
the  laws  and  deeds  of  the  Puritans  against  everybody  but  them- 
selves. Under  these  statutes  an  English  Roman  Catholic  was 
practically  debarred  from  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the  ministra- 
tions of  his  religion  ;  for  he  was  forbidden  so  much  as  to  give 
a  farthing  to  the  maintenance  of  the  only  one  at  whose  hands  he 
would  receive  such  ministration  ;  he  could  not  console  himself  in 
the  absence  of  the  priest  with  the  ordinary  aids  to  devotion,  for  it 
was  a  crime  to  sell  him  the  books  he  required,  and  he  could  import 
none  himself,  and  for  doing  what  every  Protestant  matron  who 
visits  the  Vatican  gladly  does  for  the  humblest  Catholic  domestic 
— bring  back  a  rosary  blessed  by  the  pope — any  one,  Protestant 
or  Catholic,  was  liable  to  the  pains  of  prcemujiire.  What  those 
pains  were,  may  now  be  seen  : — "  that  from  the  conviction,  the  de- 
fendant shall  be  out  of  the  king' s  protection,  and  his  lands  and  tene- 
ments, goods  and  chattels,  forfeited  to  the  king  ;  and  that  his  body 
shall  remain  in  prison  at  the  king's  pleasure,  or  (as  other  authori- 
ties have  it)  during  life''  ^ 

If  the  Brownists,  who  were  simply  harried  by  the  government, 
sought  to  escape,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Roman  Catholics, 
who  were  thus  born  to  be  criminals  by  statute,  and  whose  heredi- 
tary reward  for  devotion  was  imprisonment,  for  life,  or,  at  the 
least,  proscription  as  a  class,''  should  eagerly  strain  their  eyes  in 
the  direction  of  the  West  for  a  city  of  refuge. 

*Coke,  I  "  Inst.,"  129. 

'  The  following  letter  from  Sir  Maurice  Fortescue  to  the  Earl  of  Chesterfield 
conveys  an  idea  of  the  situation  in  which  the  Romanists  found  themselves  in 
Ireland  so  late  as  the  last  century.  [No  date  is  given.]  "  The  Catholics  being 
thus  peaceable  and  well-disposed,  I  pray  you,  my  Lord,  consider  the  many  dis- 
abilities and  misfortunes  of  our  condition.  A  Catholic  has  every  worldly  advan- 
tage to  gain  by  changing  his  faith.  For  a  Catholic  cannot  buy  land  nor  lease 
it  for  longer  than  31  years,  nor  loan  money  on  mortgage  ;  if,  by  his  industry, 
he  makes  more  than  a  third  penny  profit,  any  Protestant  who  may  choose  to 
denounce  him  may  take  his  land  for  the  trouble  ;  he  cannot  educate  his  chil- 
dren save  as  Protestants  or  beyond  the  seas,  and  if  he  dies  while  they  are  yet  of 
Itnder  years,  they  may  be  taken  from  their  Catholic  kindred  and  reared  among 
Protestant  strangers  ;  he  cannot  become  a  lawyer  or  a  soldier,  nor  occupy  any 
public  office,  not  so  much  as  that  of  a  constable,  or  tithe  collector,  nor  to  speak 
of  a  justice  or  member  of  Parliament  ;  if  he  be  a  tradesman,  his  trade  is  ham- 
pered by  all  kinds  of  quarterage  ;  if  a  gentleman,  he  may  not  carry  a  gun,  nor 
wear  a  sword,  nor  own  a  horse  valued  above  5  guineas  ;  and  yet  he  that  is  thus 
excluded  from  all  management  of  public  affairs,  and  from  all  opportunity  of 


THE  MARYLAND   CHARTER,  121 

Foremost  among  those  who  sought  to  deliver  his  people  from 
the  bondage  of  this  death,  was  Lord  Baltimore,  who  went  in  per- 
son to  Virginia  with  the  purpose  of  effecting  there  the  settlement 
of  his  followers.  But  Virginia  was  the  stronghold  of  conformity  ; 
it  especially  avowed  the  exclusion  of  Romanists  from  its  territory, 
and,  as  an  earnest  expression  of  this  avowal,  it  tendered  Baltimore 
an  oath,  which  no  one  of  his  faith  could  take,  and  which  it  was 
not  expected  he  would  subscribe.  He  proposed,  as  a  compro- 
mise, a  form  of  his  own,  which,  happily  for  our  country,  was  ob- 
stinately rejected,  and  he  was  forced  to  seek  a  soil  as  yet  unen- 
cumbered by  the  stumbling-blocks  of  intolerance.^  This  he  did, 
and  in  gratitude  for  the  royal  favor,  which  gave  him  a  charter  on 
his  own  terms,  he  named  it  after  the  queen,  Maryland. 

There  is  this  difference  between  the  New  England  charters  and 
one  such  as  that  of  Maryland — the  former  were  given  to  compa- 
nies ;  they  were  really  nothing  but  franchises  granted  for  the  pur- 
pose of  trade,  through  which  the  colonists,  by  their  own  exertions, 
acquired  from  time  to  time,  such  liberties  as  were  not  theirs  by 
the  mere  fact  of  being  British  subjects.  But  the  charters,  such  as 
that  of  Lord  Baltimore,  were  very  different  affairs.  In  them  the 
royal  franchises  were  deliberately  and  solemnly  parted  with  by 
the  throne,  and  vested  in  the  grantee,  who  thus  became  a  Proprie- 
tary, or  Lord  Palatine,  and  who  was  thus  constituted  the  guardian 
of  the  liberties  of  the  colonists,  as  well  as  their  governor.  These 
liberties  the  proprietary  colonists  brought  with  them  ;  those,  the 
company  colonists  had  to  acquire  as  best  they  could.  Where,  as 
was  commonly  the  case,  the  grantee  was  a  favorite   of  the  king, 

pleading  his  own  cause,  is  taxed  more  heavily  than  any  other  to  support  Church 
and  State. 

"My  Lord,  I  am  sensible  that  many  of  the  most  galling  of  these  laws  are  soft- 
ened by  the  good-nature  of  Protestants,  but  I  would  most  respectfully  ask  your 
Lordship  to  consider  what  tremendous  temptations  are  offered  to  men  of  indif- 
ferent virtue  to  profess  a  religion  which  they  do  not  in  their  souls  believe.  And 
*  *  *  I  would  beg  you  to  reflect  whether  men  that  resist  such  temptation 
have  not  at  least  one  merit,  and  should  be  utterly  crushed  and  subjugated." 
— Lippincott's  Magaz.,  May,  1879,  5^9*  For  such  class-oppression,  the  only 
remedy  is  that  prescribed  by  Defoe  for  the  plague — to  fly  from  it. 

This  writer  gives  likewise  the  date  when  emigration  from  Ireland  began.  He 
attributes  it  to  "  the  killing  of  the  wool  manufacture  by  the  Act  of  1699  [proba- 
bly 10  and  II  William  III,  c.  3,  ed.  of  Article],  *  *  *  and  from  that  time 
began  the  mortal  drain  on  our  population,  which  takes  from  3,000  to  5,000 
yearly  to  the  West  Indies  or  the  American  colonies,  and  these  not  belonging  to 
the  miserably  poor,  but  to  the  belter  sort." 

'  Hazard,  i,  72  ;  "  Notes  on  Virginia." 


122  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

the  crown  was  not  niggardly  as  to  the  conditions  of  the  grant, 
and  to  the  credit  of  the  Proprietaries,  it  must  be  said,  that  they 
never  failed  to  make  the  best  terms  possible  for  the  future  col- 
onists. None  made  better  use  of  the  favorable  disposition  of  the 
crown,  nor  turned  it  to  greater  advantage  for  his  people,  than  Lord 
Baltimore,  His  quick  eye  at  once  detected  the  opportunity  of 
serving  the  interests  of  his  followers,  and  of  conferring  a  great 
boon  upon  mankind  ;  and  his  generous  spirit  and  shrewd  judg- 
ment rushed  to  embrace  it  ;  for  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  himself 
penned  the  charter  which  it  was  the  honor  of  England  to  give, 
and  the  blessing  of  America  to  enjoy. 

In  this  charter  the  prince  reserved  absolutely  nothing  but  the 
evidence  of  feudal  tenure  ;  he  gave  away  every  thing  else  a  free 
people  d.eems  worth  having.  The  tenure  of  fealty,  of  itself,  re- 
served the  final  authority  to  the  crown  ;  but  this  charter,  the  first 
of  the  kind  ever  known  to  be  given,  granted  to  the  colonists  inde- 
pendent legislation,  a  representative  government  of  their  own  cre- 
ation, exemption  from  taxation  by  any  but  themselves,  a  limitation 
that  the  authority  of  the  proprietary  should  not  extend  to  the 
life,  freehold,  or  estate  of  the  citizen,  and,  above  all,  not  only 
equality  in  religious  rights  was  guaranteed,  but  preference  to  any 
sect  was  forbidden,  and  protection  was  assured  alike  to  all  who 
believed  in  Christ.  There  was,  in  fact,  no  limitation  whatever  on 
the  freedom  of  conscience,  save  that  Christianity  was  made  the 
law  of  the  land  ;  a  limitation,  which,  by  no  means  implying  the 
right  to  persecute  for  opinion's  sake,  became  in  effect  innocuous.' 

Such  were  the  provisions  of  a  charter  which  caused  a  great  ad- 
vance in  civilization,  and  which  relieves  the  dark  record  of  the 
House  of  Stuart  by  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to  have  inscribed 
upon  it,  toleration  in  religion.  This  is  not  the  only  instance 
where  a  tyrant  in  one  hemisphere  has  been  a  liberator  in  the  other: 
a  despot  heedlessly  tosses  to  a  favorite  what  he  holds  back  from 

^  "  I  will  not,"  was  part  of  the  oath  administered  to  the  Governor  of  Mary- 
land, "  by  myself,  or  any  other,  directly  or  indirectly,  molest  any  person  pro- 
fessing to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  for  or  in  respect  of  religion." 

*'  And  whereas  the  enforcing  of  the  conscience  in  matters  of  religion  hath  fre- 
quently fallen  out  to  be  of  dangerous  consequences  in  those  commonwealths 
where  it  has  been  practised,  and  for  the  more  quiet  and  peaceable  government 
of  this  province,  and  the  better  to  preserve  mutual  love  and  amity  among  the 
inhabitants,  no  person  within  this  province,  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ, 
shall  be  anyways  troubled,  molested,  or  discountenanced  for  his  or  her  religion, 
or  in  the  free  exercise  thereof." — Charter. 


THE  MARYLAND   CHARTER,  1 23 

his  people,  and  generation  after  generation  rises  up  and  calls  him 
blessed. 

Before  the  charter  had  passed  the  great  seal,  Lord  Baltimore 
died ;  but  his  mantle  fell  upon  worthy  shoulders.  The  patent 
issued  to  his  son,  who  earnestly  took  up  the  work  left  undone  by 
his  father.  Unable  to  go  in  person  to  overlook  the  foundation  of 
the  colony,  he  sent  his  brother,  who,  with  a  following  of  over  a 
hundred  gentlemen  and  their  servants,  successfully  accomplished 
the  task  ;  and  thus,  while  democracy  and  rationalism,  in  the  per- 
son of  Roger  Williams,  were  preaching  freedom  of  conscience  in 
the  North,  aristocracy  and  faith,  embodied  in  a  handful  of  Roman 
Catholics,  were  laying  deep  its  foundations  in  the  South.  The 
career  of  this  principle  in  Maryland  and  Rhode  Island,  though 
not  exempt  from  the  fluctuation  incident  to  the  action  of  every 
great  social  force,  proved  so  fortunate,  as  not  only  to  vindicate 
the  faith  of  the  Americans  in  its  truth,  but  to  justify  the  assertion, 
that,  without  it,  the  dozens  of  prosperous  States  which  have  made 
it  a  corner-stone,  would  not  be  what  they  now  are,  nor  American 
character  be  what  it  now  is. 


CHAPTER  V. 

V. — Southern  Life  and  Manners  :  Manners  of  the  Frontier, 
Manners  in  the  Southern  Provinces. 

FROM  his  treatment  of  the  subject,  Manners  in  the  Southern 
Provitices^  it  is  evident  that  Mr.  Burke  meant  to  give  full 
effect  to  the  haughtiness  that  distinguishes  an  aristocratic  consti- 
tution of  society,  and  especially  one  where  there  are  but  two 
classes,  the  owners  and  the  owned.  He  confines  his  remarks, 
however,  to  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  emanates 
from  slavery  itself.  While  he  is  careful  not  to  express  commenda- 
tion, he  asserts  very  positively  the  fact,  that  such  a  social  condi- 
tion renders  fierce  and  stubborn  the  spirit  of  liberty  that  possesses 
the  owners.  But  the  subject  is  regarded  in  this  work  not  so  much 
respecting  the  effect  which  the  personal  relations  of  slave-owner 
and  slave  have  upon  the  owner,  as  the  effect  which  an  aristocratic 
and  dispersed  condition  of  society  exerts  upon  the  upper  class, 
and  this,  too,  where  the  element  of  slavery  is  superadded. 

Although  the  manners  of  New  England  are  not  dwelt  upon  in 
his  remarks,  it  is  evident  that  the  contrast  between  them  and  the 
manners  of  the  South,  and  the  further  contrast  afforded  by  the  so- 
cial constitutions  of  these  distinct  localities,  are  present  to  his 
mind.  These  contrasts  are  set  forth  in  the  ensuing  chapter,  and 
are  still  further  to  be  disclosed  in  that  relating  to  Education^  and 
particularly  in  what  is  therein  said  concerning  the  Township.  Thus 
the  manners  of  the  North  and  the  South  are  more  or  less  described. 
But,  as  the  Middle  Provinces,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  com- 
prised the  most  dense  population,  and  the  locality  where  wealth 
was  most  widely  distributed,  it  is  thought  that  their  conservatism, 

124 


TOPOGRAPHY  OF   VIRGINIA.  12$ 

which  tempered  the  fierceness  of  colonial  liberty  without  weaken- 
ing it,  should  not  go  unheeded  ;  and  as  Pennsylvania,  from  the 
force  of  locality  and  circumstance,  exerted  the  predominating  in- 
fluence in  this  respect,  her  social  constitution  and  the  manners  of 
her  people,  have  been  taken  as  illustrations  of  the  force  which 
affected  greatly  the  spirit  of  liberty  on  her  right  hand  and  on  her 
left. 

As  a  direct  force  in  rendering  the  spirit  of  liberty  fierce,  the 
Manners  of  the  Frontier  are  also  considered. 

I.  The  manners  of  the  Southern  Provinces  differed  from  those 
of  the  Northern,  as  much  as  did  the  soil,  climate,  social  life,  and 
political  principles  and  organization.  The  manners  of  Virginia 
and  Maryland  exerted  the  greatest  influence  on  manners  and  upon 
the  development  of  personal,  social,  and  political  freedom  in  the 
South,  and  may  be  considered  as  the  patterns  after  which  those  of 
the  other  Southern  colonies  followed.  It  will  be  enough,  then,  to 
observe  these. 

And,  first,  if  the  topography  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  be  re- 
marked, as  well  as  the  equable  and  temperate  climate  which  these 
colonies  enjoyed,  it  will  not  fail  to  strike  the  observer,  that  soil, 
climate,  and  distribution  of  land  and  water,  are  admirably  adapted 
to  the  unrestrained  action  of  an  athletic,  hardy,  and  active  people, 
and,  consequently,  to  the  development  of  the  social  and  political 
forms  natural  to  them.^  Their  winters  are  long  and  severe  enough 
to  confine  the  inhabitants  within  doors,  and  thus  subject  them  to 
those  influences,  which,  springing  from  the  hearth,  tend  to  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  domestic  virtues  that  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of 
free  States  and  animate  the  character  of  free  citizens  ;  while  their 
summers  and  autumns  are  sufficiently  warm  and  prolonged  to 
tempt  out  of  doors,  for  the  rest  of  the  year,  a  race  which  has 
always  loved  the  open  air.  The  land  divided,  in  its  eastern  por- 
tion, by  a  great  bay,  is  penetrated  by  the  arms  of  this  inland  sea 
in  every  direction,  and  pours  into  it  the  fresh  waters,  which,  taking 
their  rise  in  the  great  Apalachian  chain,  and  descending  in  falls 
and  rapids  over  the  rim  which  marks  the  boundary  between 
the  Piedmont  or  uplands  and  the  alluvial  plain  or  sea-board,  at 
last  debouche  in  the  form  of  great  rivers  or  streams,  up  which  the 

*  *•  The  Present  State  of  Virginia,"  etc.,  i,  2. 


126  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

tide  forces  its  way  for  many  miles.  These  waters  and  the  terri- 
tory they  drain,  not  only  tempt  the  venturesome  to  bold  explora- 
tion, but  by  their  exhaustless  treasures  of  food  and  of  game, 
supply  the  whole  population  with  healthy  and  delicate  sustenance, 
and  afford  an  illimitable  field  for  the  exercise  of  manly  sports. 
The  bays  are  ribbed  with  beds  of  delicious  oysters;  the  tide 
waters  teem,  in  their  seasons,  with  countless  schools  of  shad  and 
rockfish ' ;  the  running  brooks  are  stocked  with  trout ;  and  stream 
and  river,  in  the  late  autumns  and  the  winters,  are  covered  with 
vast  flocks  of  teal,  of  red-head,  and  black  ducks,  and  the  peerless 
canvas-back.  On  shore,  the  pheasant,  the  quail,  the  woodcock, 
the  wild  pigeon,  and,  chief  among  them,  the  wild  turkey,  abounded 
in  profusion,  while  the  forests  of  the  uplands  and  the  mountain 
ranges  were  roamed  over  by  deer,  and  by  the  coarser  animals, 
whose  chase  demanded  every  exertion  that  tests  the  endurance  or 
the  cunning  of  man.  In  the  fields  the  crops  were  bounteous  and 
reasonably  certain,  and  when,  with  these  natural  advantages  for 
comfort,  and  the  liberation  of  the  mind  from  care,  the  hospitable 
disposition  of  the  race  from  which  the  inhabitants  sprung  is  con- 
sidered, their  love  of  field  sports  and  adventure,  and  the  facilities 
given  to  the  development  of  these  qualities  by  that  peculiarity  of 
social  organization  which  divides  the  soil  into  large  estates  pro- 
ducing great  incomes,  it  will  easily  be  conceived,  that  the  manners 
of  the  people  were  characterized  by  a  love  of  manly,  open-air 
adventure  and  daring,  and  by  a  free-handed  hospitality  which 
took  its  character  of  heartiness  from  the  elevated  class  that 
peopled  the  land,  and  from  the  abundance  which  supplied  its 
bounty. 

The  distribution  of  population  throughout  this  pleasant  land 
was  on  a  plan  directly  in  contrast  with  that  of  New  England,  and 
had  no  parallel  in  America,  save  that  which  appeared  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  under  the  rule  of  the  Dutch  Patroons. 
The  first  immigration  of  Virginia,  like  that  of  New  England, 
was  composed  of  the  ruder  classes,  but  the  after-immigration  of 
both   was  of  a  very  different  sort ;  and  that  of  Maryland  was, 

^"  These  waters  are  stored  with  incredible  quantities  of  fish,  such  as  sheeps- 
heads,  rockfish,  drums,  white  perch,  herrings,  oysters,  craV:)s,  and  several  other 
sorts.  Sturgeon  and  sliad  are  in  prodigious  numbers  ;  of  the  latter  5,000  have 
been  caught  at  one  single  haul  of  the  seine." — Burnaby's  "  Travels,"  1759-60, 
15,  16  ;  the  Abbe  Raynal,  "  Hist.  Brit.  Settlements  in  America,"  i,  195. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION.  12/ 

from  the  beginning,  thoroughly  aristocratic.  As  that  of  New 
England  embraced  the  best  of  the  middle  classes,  being  men  of 
substance  and  learning,  so  that  of  Virginia  was  in  a  great  measure 
drawn  from  the  aristocracy  or  squirearchy.  Some  of  the  best 
names  of  England  were  there  represented,  and  were  augmented 
during  the  civil  wars  by  royalists  like  themselves,  and  on  the  Res- 
toration by  Dissenters,  generally  Presbyterians,  of  the  most  re- 
spectable though  not  uniformly  of  the  highest  classes.  These 
latter  located  themselves  chiefly  in  the  Western  settlements,  or  in 
the  interior  valleys  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas, 
while  the  aristocratic  class  remained  where  it  was  first  established, 
on  the  sea-board.  After  the  influence  of  class  which  controlled 
the  tide-water  planters,  it  is  to  this  distribution  of  population  that 
is  chiefly  due  the  peculiar  manners  of  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

In  New  England  the  tendency  of  population  was  toward  cities 
and  towns.  Peopled  by  the  middle  classes,  those  classes,  true  to 
the  instincts  of  tribal  development,  acted  out  in  America  the  plan 
of  life  to  which  those  instincts  had  of  old  subordinated  them  in 
England.  They  congregated  ;  and  the  individuality  of  the  citizen 
became  secondary  to  that  of  the  community  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  He  was  but  a  subordinate  part  of  the  state  while,  in 
the  South  he  was  a  pillar,  without  which  the  structure  would 
tumble  into  ruins.  There,  the  citizen  was  made  for  the  state ; 
but  here,  the  state  was  made  for  the  citizen.  Around  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  society  was  concentrated,  and  the  country  depended 
on  the  town  ;  around  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  dispersed,  and  the  town  depended  on  the  country.  In  New 
England  we  hear  of  villages  and  towns  before  we  hear  of  farms  ; 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia  we  hear  of  plantations  before  we  hear  of 
boroughs,  and,  in  fact,  throughout  the  South,  we  are  familiar  with 
the  names  of  plantations  long  before  the  handful  of  dwellings  at 
the  cross-roads,  or  even  the  county  capitals,  are  so  distinguished. 
In  Massachusetts  the  court-house  followed  the  litigants,  and  was 
placed  in  the  middle  of  the  most  populous. or  accessible  town  ;  in 
Virginia  it  was  placed  in  the  fields,  and  the  town  gradually  clus- 
tered around  it.  In  a  word,  society  was  concentrated  in  the  North, 
but  in  the  South  it  was  dispersed.' 

*"Our  country  being  much  intersected  with  navigable  waters,  and  trade 
brought  generally  to  our  doors,  instead  of  our  being  obliged  to  go  in  quest  of  it, 


128  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

This  difference  in  distribution  of  population  was  caused  by 
difference  in  soil,  class,  and  character,  and  it  directed  the  industry 
of  the  people  toward  opposite  ends.  In  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
the  social  structure  was  built  upon  agriculture — that  universal 
support  of  aristocracy, — and  to  this  pursuit  every  thing  else  gave 
way  ;  but  in  New  England,  the  activity  of  the  people  was  directed 
to  commerce,  and  to  trade,  shipping,  and  the  fisheries,  all  other 
occupations  were  subordinated.  In  this  part  of  the  colonies, 
society  was  composed  entirely  of  what  in  England  was  the  middle 
class  :  in  that  portion,  no  middle  class  worth  mentioning  appeared  ; 
society  there  was  made  up  of  owners  and  owned,  masters  and 
slaves,  and  so  insignificant  was  any  class  between  them,  that,  in 
the  early  days,  there  were  even  no  middle-men  to  receive  and 
distribute  the  crop,  but  the  planter  shipped  his  produce  to  England 
from  his  own  wharf,  and  dealt  directly  with  his  factor  in  London 
or  Bristol.  In  New  England,  society  was  democratic  and  pro- 
gressive, and  legislation  acted  upon  the  people  in  its  entirety  ;  but 
in  the  South,  society  was  aristocratic  and  conservative,  and  the 
laws,  which  recognized  the  division  of  society  into  two  classes, 
asserted  the  superiority  of  one  of  those  classes  over  the  other. 
Thus  was  inculcated  and  maintained  in  the  breast  of  the  South- 
erner, from  his  earliest  days,  that  sense  of  personal  superiority 
which  possesses  those  only  whom  the  laws  distinguish  as  a  class 
for  whose  benefit  the  rest  of  society  is  born  to  toil.  This  very 
sense  of  superiority,  so  irritable  upon  the  slightest  injury,  or  even 
neglect,  will  not  brook  for  an  instant  the  infringement  of  a  privi- 
lege, but  will  expend  its  whole  strength  to  preserve  a  right  or 
redress  a  wrong,  and  hence  it  is,  of  itself,  a  powerful  incentive  to 
render  the  spirit  of  liberty  a  fierce  one. 

As  in  New  England  the  individuals  congregated,  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland  they  dispersed,  and  isolation  was  as  striking  a 
characteristic  of  society  in  the  South  as  association  was  in  the 
North.  The  peculiar  topography  of  the  country  favored  the  ten- 
dency to  isolation  quite  as  much  as  the  magnitude  of  the  estates 
did  by  placing  the  mansions  far  apart.    The  rivers  were  navigable, 

has  probably  been  one  of  the  causes  why  we  have  no  towns  of  any  consequence. 
Williamsburgh,  which,  till  the  year  1780,  was  the  seat  of  our  government,  never 
contained  above  i,8co  inhabitants;  and  Norfolk,  the  most  populous  town  we 
ever  had,  contained  but  6,000." — "Notes  on  Virginia,"  Query  xii ;  "  Present 
State  of  Virginia,'*  etc.,  2.  Edenton,  the  capital  of  North  Carolina,  in  1729,  had 
but  forty  houses."     Burnaby's  "  Travels,"  6. 


SOCIAL  EFFECTS  OF  ISOLATION'.  1 29 

and,  in  selecting  the  site  of  a  plantation,  it  was  as  much  the  object 
of  the  planter  to  obtain  a  place  on  such  waters,  as  it  is  that  of  the 
Western  settler  to-day  to  be  within  reach  of  a  railway.  The  wharf 
was  even  a  greater  necessity  than  the  barn.  Transportation  by 
water  was  easy  and  cheap,  and  being  the  best  there  was,  and  by 
far  the  best  in  point  of  comfort,  the  streams  naturally  became  the 
real  highways  of  the  lowlands.  As  travel  and  transportation, 
then,  sought  the  avenues  which  were  ready  at  hand  and  cost 
nothing,  there  was  not  the  same  necessity  for  a  road  system  as 
existed  in  the  North,  and  the  'cross-country  roads  were  neglected 
both  in  construction  and  repair.  Travel  was  thus  confined  chiefly 
to  the  rivers  which  permitted  access  to  the  interior,  and  to  the  Bay 
which  allowed  passage  north  and  south,  and  intercourse  was  re- 
stricted mainly  to  the  shore  which  bounded  them.  The  space 
devoted  to  locomotion  being  in  this  way  contracted,  the  distribu- 
tion of  land  and  water  exerted  for  several  generations  (until,  at 
least,  the  habits  of  the  people  had  become  formed)  a  strong  influ- 
ence on  the  distribution  of  population,  and  favored  the  isolation 
to  which  the  planter  found  it  necessary  to  conform. 

This  isolation,  relieved  only  by  the  daily  duties  of  the  estate,  the 
observances  of  social  intercourse,  the  sports  in  the  open  field,  the 
recurring  election  of  delegates,  or  the  annual  visit  to  the  colonial 
capital,  had  a  powerful  influence  on  the  modes  of  thought  and  on 
social  life.  It  certainly  tended  to  make  the  planter  a  reflective 
being  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  and,  though  it  narrowed  the 
horizon  of  his  experience,  it  preserved  the  simplicity  of  domestic 
habits,  and,  turning  the  mind  back  upon  itself  for  aliment,  con- 
tributed its  force  toward  impressing  that  synthetical  cast  of 
thought  and  expression  on  the  people,  which  their  descendants 
in  that  part  of  America  retain  in  greater  or  less  degree  to  the 
present  day. 

It  preserved,  too,  the  simplicity  of  a  language,  which  was 
brought  over  in  the  days  of  its  greatest  purity  ;  when  the  predom- 
inance of  its  Gothic  element  made  it  at  once  forcible  and  pictur- 
esque, and  when  the  admixture  of  the  Latin  element  had  reached 
the  p<Mnt  at  which  it  rendered  the  tongue  copious  without  enfeeb- 
ling it.  This  distinction — for  distinction  it  must  ever  be,  to  speak 
one's  language  purely  and  correctly — has,  for  many  years  past,  been 
undergoing    obliteration    before    the    corrupting   encroachments 


130  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

brought  upon  it  by  the  unrestrained  intercourse  of  modern  tihies, 
by  the  flood  of  immigration,  and,  not  least,  by  the  late  Civil  War. 
But,  even  to-day,  it  still  lingers,  as  if  loath  to  depart  from  the 
hearths  at  which  it  for  so  long  found  shelter  ;  and  in  regions,  like 
that  of  the  Eastern  Shore,  which  are  yet  remote  from  the  contam- 
ination of  a  dialect  which  has  sacrificed  purity  to  copiousness, 
and  rustic  force  to  fluency,  one's  ear  is  even  now  occasionally  re- 
freshed by  household  words  and  forms  of  expression,  which  mark, 
at  once,  the  unalloyed  descent  of  the  speaker  from  those  who  used 
the  tongue  in  its  purity,  and  the  isolation  of  the  generations  who 
handed  it  down  to  him.  Indeed,  at  the  time  when  the  fraternal 
strife  of  the  Parliamentary  wars  was  turning  its  honey  into  gall, 
and  the  cant  of  the  Puritans  was  changing  its  wine  to  vinegar ; 
when,  still  later,  the  vices  of  the  Restoration  and  the  dilettanteism 
of  Queen  Anne's  reign  were  either  polluting  its  being  or  sapping 
its  strength,  during  all  that  time  our  language  was  being  spoken 
in  its  by-gone  purity  and  comeliness  around  the  hearths  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia. 

It  was  exposed  to  three  extraneous  influences — the  dialect  of 
the  negroes,  the  language  of  the  Indians,  and  the  debilitation  of 
the  tongue  which  became  apparent  in  the  reigns  of  the  last 
Stuart  and  the  two  succeeding  monarchs.  Of  these,  the  first, 
happily,  affected  the  accent  only,  but  did  not  reach  the  body  of 
the  language  ;  the  second  proved  actually  beneficial,  by  relieving 
the  nomenclature,  servilely  imitative  of  that  of  England,  with  the 
beauty  of  the  Indian  names,  which  added  a  charm  to  the  tongue 
without  assimilating  with  it  ;  and  the  third,  never  extending  to 
customary  discourse,  had  only  the  exceedingly  scanty  literature  of 
the  colonies  to  affect,  and  that  it  vitiated  but  slightly.  Thus  the 
language,  if  not  invigorated,  was,  at  least,  not  impaired.  Down 
to  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  Virginia  was  preserved  from  the 
influences  that  corrupted  the  language  in  England,  at  first  by  the 
remoteness  of  situation  and  by  her  indisposition  to  cross  the  ocean 
only  to  land  on  a  field  of  civil  strife  ;  and  later  by  the  inability  of 
the  incomplete  fortunes  of  the  planters  to  meet  the  heavy  expenses 
which  a  journey  to  Europe  at  that  time  imposed  upon  tourists  of 
their  social  position.  When,  however,  the  magnitude  of  their 
incomes  represented  that  of  their  estates,  and  coincided,  as  it  did 
at  the  beginning  of  that  reign,  with  the  established  tranquillity  of 


FURTHER  EFFECTS  OF  ISOLATION.  I3I 

the  kingdom,  the  situation  changed.  Then  the  colonist  could 
afford  to  gratify  his  desire  to  see  the  world,  to  renew  the  ties 
which,  though  weakened  by  lapse  of  time,  still  bound  him  to  his 
English  kin,  and  to  refresh  his  own  civilization  by  contact  with 
the  old.  The  custom  arose  among  the  rich,  of  sending  their  sons 
abroad  for  a  university  education,  to  study  a  profession,  or  to 
make  the  grand  tour  ;  and  then,  and,  especially,  afterward  it  was, 
that  it  became  the  mode,  de  rigueur,  for  the  young  Virginians  to 
ruffle  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  to  have  a  glimpse  of  the  great  Doctor 
Johnson  as  their  fathers  had  had  of  the  great  Mr.  Pope,  to  dance 
a  minuet  at  Holland  House,  to  visit  the  play  and  see  Macklin  or 
Garrick,  and  to  lose  a  few  hundreds  at  White's  or  the  Cocoa, 
before  settling  down  to  marriage  and  the  staid  and  homely  duties 
of  Virginia  squires.  These  were  they,  who,  to  dissipate  the  dul- 
ness  of  plantation  life,  brought  back  boxes  filled  with  the  litera- 
ture of  the  day,  or  even  went  so  far  as  to  try  their  own  hands  at 
an  occasional  epigram.  But,  as  their  efforts  generally  ended 
there,  or  expressed  themselves  only  on  some  political  or  other 
practical  question,  which  scouted  at  stilts  and  exacted  common- 
sense  and  homely  language,  no  great  harm  was  done  ;  and  the 
dilettanteism  or  foppery,  which  spread  itself,  like  a  mist,  around 
the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  was  thus  restricted  to  the  few  sub- 
jects which  presented  themselves  for  its  display,  and,  at  last, 
cleared  away  before  the  breezy  vigor  which  the  stirring  times  of 
the  Stamp  Act  again  freshened  into  life.  It  did  not  corrupt  the 
tongue.* 

This  isolation,  or,  rather,  the  interruption  of  it,  produced  still 
another  effect  on  the  Southerner,  which  was  enhanced  by  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  language  in  its  purity.  When  the  placidity  of  ru- 
ral life  was  disturbed  by  the  exigencies  of  politics,  as  the  county 
election  of  delegates,  for  example,  the  work  in  hand  was  not  un- 
dertaken heedlessly  or  without  due  consideration.  Whether  the 
question  underlying  the  election  was  some  impending  encroach- 
ment of  the  crown  (the  only  quarter  from  which  attack  was  to  be 
feared),  an  affair  of  colonial  administration,  the  rectification  of 
an  Indian  frontier,  or  something  affecting  the  planter's  pocket,  it 
had  been,  long  before  the  eventful  day  which  settled  it,  thorough- 

^  The  absence  of  ])rinting  facilities — for  there  was  but  one  printing-house  in 

Virginia — proved,  in  this  respect,  a  godsend. 


132  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

ly,  not  to  say  solemnly,-  discussed.  Where  the  ground  was  first 
broken  was  at  the  dinner-table.  As  the  importance  of  the  meas- 
ure loomed  up  and  filled  the  heavens,  the  gentlemen  of  the  county, 
one  after  another,  bade  their  neighbors  to  a  feast,  and,  on  the  with- 
drawal of  the  ladies,  and  with  the  advent  of  pipes^  and  a  fresh  sup- 
ply of  port  or  claret,  the  question  was  there  broached,  and  the 
pros  and  cons  were  discussed  with  an  ardor  characteristic  of 
the  disputants,  and  with  an  earnestness  which  betokened  their 
responsibility  as  law-makers.  Before  the  party  broke  up,  it  was 
generally  understood  who  should  represent  them  as  candidates  at 
the  ensuing  election,  and  the  guests  went  home  to  turn  the  whole 
thing  over  in  their  minds  when  unclouded  by  wine  and  unbiassed 
by  the  accents  of  allies  or  opponents. 

When  the  day  for  the  county  or  parish  meeting  arrived,"*  the 
planter  issued  forth  to  help  along  the  plan  previously  agreed  upon 
with  his  neighbors.  As  we  have  seen,  he  went  not  blindly  nor 
unprepared  :  discussion  had  made  him  familiar  with  the  features 
of  the  measure,  and  observation  had  enabled  him  to  take  its  bear- 
ings. On  reaching  the  appointed  place,  he  found  himself  one  of 
an  assemblage,  of  which  each  member  was  on  an  equality  with  the 
rest,  and  where  every  one  was  free  to  speak  his  mind  on  what 
concerned  all.  If  he  were  prompted  to  address  the  meeting,  he 
did  so  with  a  fearlessness  which  sprung  from  his  familiarity  with 
his  subject  and  his  hearers,  and  he  betrayed  none  of  the  hesitancy 
of  a  stranger  to  either.  He  presented  his  views  with  the  zeal  of  a 
propagandist,  and  with  a  positiveness  enforced  by  the  earnestness 
of  his  straightforward  nature  and  his  simple  habits  of  life  ;  and, 
as  the  question  on  the  carpet  was  always  one  which  touched  his 
principles,  his  position,  or  his  pocket,  he  treated  it  in  the  most 
business-like  manner,  and  always  spoke  directly  to  the  point. 
Government,  with  him,  was  a  practical  and  homely  art,  and  he  ap- 
plied it  in  a  practical  and  homely  way.    His  sense  of  equality  with 

*  Cigars  were  not  in  use  until  the  very  close  of  the  last  century — in  Philadel- 
phia, not  until  after  1798. — i  Wats.  An.  98,  n. 

'  "  The  State,  by  another  division,  is  formed  into  parishes,  many  of  which  are 
commensurate  with  the  counties  ;  but  sometimes  a  county  compreliends  more 
than  one  parish,  and  sometimes  a  parish  more  than  one  county.  This  division 
had  relation  to  the  religion  of  the  State.  *  *  *  We  have  no  townships." — 
"  Notes  on  Virginia,"  Query  xii.  "  — the  house  of  delegates  [is]  compo'-ed,  of 
two  members  from  each  county,  chosen  annually  by  the  citizens  possessinsj  an 
estate  for  life  in  100  acres  of  uninhabited  land,  or  twenty-five  acres  with  a  house 
on  it,  or  in  a  house  or  lot  in  some  town." — Id,,  Query  xiii. 


SOUTHERN  INDIVIDUALITY.  133 

those  of  his  own  class  and  the  community  of  interest  he  had  with 
them,  intensified  as  they  were  by  his  sense  of  superiority  to  the 
only  other  portion  of  the  society  in  which  he  lived,  emboldened 
him  to  every  accent  of  persuasion  possible,  and  tempted  him  to 
discussion  and  party  action  that  were  characterized  by  perfect 
freedom.  From  such  sources  flowed  that  readiness  in  oratory, 
that  fondness  for  debate,  that  familiarity  with  the  principles  of 
government,  that  aptness  for  administration,  and  that  sense  of 
political  responsibility,  which  have  always  characterized  these 
people. 

On  the  day  of  election,  the  voters  that  were  not  actually  bed- 
ridden turned  out  to  a  man  ;  and  when  the  votes  had  been  duly 
cast,  and  the  clerks  had  righteously  counted  them  and  declared 
officially  the  result,  then  ensued  a  scene  of  joviality  which  made 
the  country-side  ring.  The  newly  elected  members  were  chaired, 
and  the  victorious  party  celebrated  its  triumph,  while  the  defeated 
drowned  its  sorrow,  in  brimming  bowls  of  rum  and  arrack  punch. 

A  form  of  society  in  which  there  was  no  political  centralization 
worthy  of  the  name,  and  where  the  only  centralization  that  ex- 
isted was  domestic,  and  had  the  lord  of  the  fields  for  its  object, 
naturally  heightened  the  self-esteem  of  the  planter,  as  his  mem- 
bership of  a  privileged  class  also  increased  his  self-respect  ;  and 
a  life  broken  in  upon  only  by  the  duties  of  citizenship,  or  the 
claims  of  neighborly  intercourse,  left  him  who  led  it  pretty  much 
the  absolute  master  of  his  own  actions.  Such  a  life,  therefore, 
tended  to  great  individuality  of  character  and  freedom  of  action, 
two  things  highly  conducive  to  the  growth  of  a  free  spirit,  while 
its  quality  of  isolation,  by  inducing  reflective  habits  of  thought, 
gave  to  the  Southern  temperament  a  meditative  cast,  which  found 
its  contrast  in  the  more  active  and  acute  mind  of  the  North.  In 
the  Southern  colonies,  as  has  been  said,  society  was  dispersed, 
while,  on  the  contrary,  the  life  of  the  individual  was  exceedingly 
concentrated  ;  but  in  the  Northern  colonies  society  was  concen- 
trated while  individuality  was  dispersed,  or,  rather,  merged  and 
diffused  in  the  body  politic.  This  individuality,  so  markedly  a 
Southern  characteristic,  manifested  itself  in  various  ways,  but  in 
none  more  conspicuously  than  in  the  boldness  with  which  the 
measures  of  government  were  met  and  criticized,  and  in  the  fer- 


134  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

tility  of  resources  which  the  people  displayed  in  matters  of  gov- 
ernment. As  class  is  one  of  the  offsprings  of  individuality 
among  free  people,  it  may  be  said  that  this  latter  aided  the  natural 
superiority  of  race  in  limiting  the  law-making  power  to  the  mi- 
nority, and  in  the  restriction  of  its  action  to  the  almost  exclusive 
benefit  of  this  class.* 

It  is  natural  that  a  people  living  apart  from  each  other,  and  de- 
pendent almost  entirely  for  society  on  their  own  families,  should 
make  much  of  their  homes.  Accordingly  in  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia, we  find,  universally,  not  only  a  strong  and  fond  attachment, 
for  the  fireside,  but  a  development  of  domestic  life  to  which  the 
history  of  the  race  affords  few  parallels.  If  the  individual  at  the 
North  was  absorbed  in  the  general  mass  of  society,  in  the  South 
whatever  individuality  departed  from  him  was  lost  in  the  family. 
This,  not  the  person,  was  the  unit  of  society.  Each  family,  with 
its  dependents,  was  a  distinct  social  organization  of  which  the 
great  house  was  the  centre.  To  this  abode,  as  the  capital  of  the 
little  province,  all  roads  led,  and  from  it  all  life  went  forth.  What 
was  done  in  the  field  was  done  for  the  house,  and  the  head  of 
it  was  a  patriarch  for  whom  the  crops  grew,  the  herds  browsed, 
and  the  bondsmen  toiled.  The  family  it  was,  on  which  was  built 
the  whole  social  structure  of  the  State.  As  the  agricultural  char- 
acter of  society  compelled  its  existence ;  as  the  pride  of  class 
stimulated  its  creation  ;  and  as  the  highest  enjoyment  of  life 
was  to  be  found  only  within  its  precincts,  interest,  pride,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  all  combined  to  establish  it,  to  maintain 
it,  and  to  enlarge  its  importance.  Hence,  marriages  were  early 
and  prolific,  and  if  there  was  any  one  feeling  stronger  than  the 

*  "  The  public  or  political  character  of  the  Virt^inians  corresponds  with  their 
private  one  ;  they  are  haughty  and  jealous  of  their  liberties,  impatient  of  restraint, 
and  can  scarcely  bear  the  thought  of  being  controlled  by  any  superior  power. 
Many  of  them  consider  the  colonies  as  independent  states,  not  connected  with 
Great  Britain  otherwise  than  having  the  same  common  king,  and  being  bound 
to  her  with  natural  affection.  *  *  *  In  matters  of  commerce  they  are  ignorant 
of  the  necessary  principles  that  must  prevail  between  a  colony  and  the  mother- 
country  ;  they  think  it  a  hardship  not  to  have  an  unlimited  trade  to  every  part 
of  the  world.  They  consider  the  duties  upon  their  staple  only  as  injurious  to 
themselves,  and  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  persuade  them  that  they  affect  the 
consumer  also.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  to  do  them  justice,  the  same  spirit 
of  generosity  prevails  here  which  does  in  their  private  character  ;  they  never 
refuse  any  necessary  supplies  for  the  support  of  government  when  called  upon, 
and  are  a  generous  and  loyal  people."     Burnaby's  "  Travels,"  1759-60,  34,  35. 


THE  PLANTER.  135 

ambition  to  found  a  family,  it  was  the  desire,  on  the  part  of 
those  who  formed  one,  to  perpetuate  what  already  existed.  The 
ties  of  blood  were  very  strong,  and  reached  to  a  point  so  much 
further  than  what  was  ever  before  attained,  that  the  term  "  Vir- 
ginia cousin "  includes  that  extremely  remote  kinship  which, 
among  other  people,  is  scarcely  ever  recognized.  Domesticity 
was  thus  the  most  positive  fact  of  this  patriarchal  existence,  and 
to  its  advancement  and  preservation  every  energy  was  bent.  The 
household  gods  were  never  held  in  greater  reverence  than  on 
the  banks  of  the  Patapsco  and  the  James. 

The  magnitude  of  the  estates  and  of  the  incomes  derived  from 
them,  the  absence  of  any  preponderating  middle  class,  the  fact 
that  the  labor  was  actually  owned  by  the  planter,  that  the  making 
of  the  laws  was  in  his  own  hands,  and  that  these  laws  were  made 
for  his  benefit,  the  lofty  sense  of  social  position,  the  pride  of  race 
and  of  class, — all  these  combined  in  making  him  content  to  live  on 
his  own  ground,  and  in  giving  him  the  position  of  an  autocrat 
among  his  own  people.  Hence  that  haughtiness  and  self-esteem 
in  the  land  and  slave-owner,  which,  as  it  has  been  remarked,  was 
easily  irritated  and  which  chafed  at  restraint.  His  vices  were  few' 
and  rare,  and,  except  the  excesses  of  the  table,  in  which,  however, 
he  did  not  begin  to  equal  his  cousin  of  Yorkshire,  his  habits  were 
marked  by  simplicity  aud  dignity.^  He  was  remarkably  free  from 
avarice,  and  delighted  in  the  possession  of  money,  not  for  itself, 
but  for  what  it  would  bring  :  yet,  though  lavish  in  hospitality  and 
family  state,  he  had  a  cautious  eye  to  the  future,  and  a  prudence 
which  led  him  to  seize  every  advantage  of  the  present.  Land  was 
the  one  standard  of  wealth  and  influence,  and  as  the  expansion  of 
his  estate  increased  his  weight  in  society,  he  was  ever  seeking  to 
enlarge  it,  and  thus  was  often  led  to  fall  into  the  prevailing  vice  of 
the  day,  greed  of  land,  and  to  become  the  victim  of  what  was  in 
those  times  called  "land  hunger.'"*  When  this  species  of  famine 
had  once  taken  hold  of  him,  he  seemed  incapable  of  throwing  it 
off.  He  frequently  kept  himself  poor,  and  would  even  go  so  far 
as  to  impoverish  himself  in  the  attempt  to  extend  his  estate  ;  and 

*  "  I  will  do  justice  to  this  country.  I  have  observed  here  less  swearing  and 
prophaneness,  less  drunkenness  and  debauchery,  less  uncharitable  feuds  and  ani- 
mosities, and  less  knavery  and  villianys,  than  in  any  part  of  the  world  where 
my  lot  has  been." — Spotswood's  "  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London." 

'Davenant,  "On  Planln.   Travie,"  Pol,  and  Com,  Works,  ii,  27,  28, 


13^  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

he  was  often  loaded  down  with  vast  tracts  of  wild  lands  purchased 
from  the  crown,  which  rivalled  dukedoms  in  extent,  but  which 
were  as  barrren  of  income  as  they  were  of  crops.  Sometimes  the 
taxes  on  these  expanses  of  rock  and  forest  ate  up  his  substance 
long  before  the  wilderness,  of  which  they  were  a  part,  was  suffi- 
ciently rid  of  savages  to  command  a  market,  and  his  descendants, 
in  the  bitterness  of  their  poverty,  had  reason  to  curse  the  impru- 
dent accumulation  of  acres,  which,  never  having  even  reached  their 
hands,  bore  no  other  evidence  of  his  foresight  than  the  repetition 
of  his  name  on  the  surveyors'  maps.  Generally,  his  land  specula- 
tions were  founded  on  the  assumption,  that  before  the  debt,  which 
was  contracted  in  the  purchase,  was  due,  it  could  be  paid  from  the 
rise  in  value  consequent  upon  the  increased  demand  of  an  inflow- 
ing population,  and  yet  leave  him  a  handsome  surplus.  The  fail- 
ure of  such  schemes  beggared  hundreds,  but  where  sufficient 
money  was  in  hand,  the  home  or  tide-water  plantation  free  from 
debt,  and  the  income  certain,  the  wild  lands  were  held  without 
risk,  and  these  purchases  accomplishing  their  object,  posterity  in 
time  found  its  hands  strengthened  by  the  bounty  which  flowed 
in  from  the  ancestor's  foresight.  The  chief  object  of  the  planter's 
life  seemed  to  be  attained  when  he  was  able  to  give  a  plantation 
to  each  child,  with  prospective  estates  for  the  grandchildren,  yet 
to  be  carved  out  of  the  western  wilderness  when  their  time  came. 
In  the  halcyon  days  of  these  colonies,  before  the  fields  were 
run  down,  and  when  the  tobacco  crop  was  still  certain  and  valua- 
ble, the  style  of  domestic  life  along  the  sea-board  was  very  great. 
The  planters  were  given  to  field  sports,  and  every  county  had  its 
meet  of  fox-hunters,  who,  with  the  belles  of  the  neighborhood, 
swept  over  the  fields  in  a  way  which  in  these  days  would  do  honor 
to  Melton  Mowbray.  Kennels  were  as  much  a  part  of  the  planta- 
tion's equipment  as  the  stables,  and  a  knowledge  of  dog-breaking 
was  as  necessary  a  branch  of  domestic  learning  as  that  of  horse- 
training.  In  the  spring  and  early  summer  the  rods  were  out,  and 
much  sport  was  had  in  taking  the  rockfish  or  striped  bass.  The 
low-lying  thickets  of  bushes  and  brush  afforded  woodcock  in  sum- 
mer, and  autumn,  of  course,  called  into  exercise  every  kind  and 
shade  of  field  and  upland  shooting.  But  in  duck-shooting  none 
equalled  the  dweller  on  the  banks  of  the  Chesapeake  waters,  and 
he  braved  the  early  days  of  winter  with  a  zest  the  elements  could 


SOUTHERN  HOME  LIFE.  137 

not  chill,  and  displayed  skill  and  quickness  which  would  have  mor- 
tified with  envy  the  soul  of  a  Lincolnshire  fen-hunter.  The  Vir- 
ginian was  half  his  time  on  horseback,  and,  to  gratify  his  passion 
for  equitation,  he  imported  blooded  stock  and  improved  the  breed 
of  horses/  If  he  went  to  overlook  his  laborers  in  the  field,  he 
rode  ;  if  he  visited  a  neighbor,  he  rode  ;  and,  if  he  had  nothing 
else  to  do,  he  mounted  his  horse,  and,  often  accompanied  by  his 
daughters,  cantered  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  or  through  the 
quiet  woods.  Nothing  was  more  common  than  riding  partiec  ; 
they  broke  the  monotony  of  house  life,  and  when  there  were 
guests,  saddle-horses  always  stood  ready  before  the  door. 

The  circumstances  of  the  planter's  condition  led,  too,  to  a  free- 
dom of  manners,  which,  however,  was  any  thing  but  adverse  to  the 
development  of  the  domestic  virtues  that  shone  so  brightly  among 
them.  Nowhere  has  the  world  seen  greater  freedom  of  inter- 
course between  the  sexes,  and  nowhere  greater  purity  of  morals. 
To  such  an  extent  was  this  association  carried,  that  the  women 
shared,  as  far  as  possible,  the  open-air  life  of  the  men,  riding  with 
them  over  the  country,  following  the  hounds,  and  braving  together 
the  roughness  of  the  rivers  and  the  bay.  Nor  did  this  sympathy 
stop  with  the  pursuit  of  pleasure ;  for,  during  the  illness  or  ab- 
sence of  their  lords,  they  looked  after  the  affairs  of  the  estate, 
and  saw  for  themselves  that  every  thing  went  on  as  it  should  do. 
Notable  housewives,  these  helpmeets  were  famed  as  the  very 
divinities  of  good  housekeeping,  and  the  cuisine,  which,  at  this 
hour,  makes  that  portion  of  the  country  synonymous  with  good 
living,  had  its  origin  in  their  taste  and  in  their  kitchens.  Their 
whole  aim  in  life  was  to  make  themselves  and  home  pleasing,  and 
the  undiminished  fame  of  matron  and  maid  proclaim  to  this  genera- 
tion the  success  they  attained. 

In  return  for  this  sympathy  in  matters  of  interest  and  pleasure, 
the  men  yielded  an  affection  and  respect  to  the  women,  which, 
without  exaggeration  of  sentimentality,  may  be  characterized  as 
something  which  in  those  days  might  have  been  sought  for  in 
vain  as  a  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  corresponding  class  of 
English  and  French  society.  The  vicious  tone  which  followed  the 
Restoration  was  utterly  lost  on  the  pure  relations  that  existed  be- 
tween the  men  and  women  of  the  colonies. 

*  Jones,  "  Present  State  of  Virginia,"  44. 


133  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

Much  of  this  free  association  of  the  sexes  was  undoubtedly  com- 
pelled by  the  want  of  society  which  the  isolation  and  loneliness  of 
their  lives  occasioned,  but,  whatever  the  cause,  it  existed,  and  ex- 
isted in  a  purity  to  which  their  descendants  can  recur  with  proud 
satisfaction.  Nor  will  it  be  denied,  that  the  liberty  of  a  freedom- 
loving  race  derives  great  ardor  from  the  flame  that  lights  a  pure 
and  spotless  hearth. 

To  this  isolation  of  their  estates,  and  to  their  own  isolation  on 
their  estates — for  so  great  was  the  gulf  fixed  between  the  planter 
and  his  slaves,  that  the  family  was  entirely  dependent  on  itself  for 
society — to  this  isolation  was  due,  in  a  great  measure,  the  free 
hospitality  which  has  come  down  to  us  as  a  golden  legend.  For, 
when  the  monotony  and  irksomeness  of  the  daily  life  on  a  planta- 
tion was  once  broken  in  upon  by  an  arrival  from  the  world  out- 
side, the  contrast  which  at  once  presented  itself  to  the  dulness  of 
the  ordinary  routine  was  amazing.  Nothing  was  too  costly  or  too 
good  to  compensate  fortune  for  that  greatest  of  blessings  among 
a  dispersed  society — the  companionship  of  friends.  The  planter 
delayed  not  in  showing  his  appreciation  of  the  godsend  thus 
vouchsafed.  As  the  heavy  coaches  and  six  lumbered  up  to  the 
door  amid  the  barking  of  dogs,  the  cracking  of  whips,  and  the  de- 
light of  the  negroes,  the  lord  of  the  manor  stood  ready  to  receive 
them  with  open  arms,  supported  by  his  wife  and  family,  and  sur- 
rounded by  an  army  of  servants.  The  whole  crowd  of  idlers, 
which  seems  to  have  been  a  necessary  pest  on  every  plantation, 
was  at  once  in  motion.  As  the  postilions  flung  themselves  to  the 
ground,  grooms  sprang  from  the  earth  to  care  for  the  equipages 
and  horses,  and  the  dignified  but  hearty  welcome  was  witnessed 
by  awe-struck  groups  of  negroes,  whose  heads  protruded  from 
around  the  corners  of  the  great  house.  A  dozen  hands  contested 
the  honor  of  helping  the  ladies  to  unmantle,  and  when  these  had 
retired  to  their  rooms,  and  their  escorts  had  rejoined  their  host, 
the  loving  cup,  in  the  shape  of  mint  juleps  in  summer,  and,  in 
winter,  punch  or  egg  nog,  speedily  went  round  among  the  gentle- 
men. The  kitchen  fires  blazed  like  beacons,  and,  from  cooks  to 
scullions,  all,  in  this  part  of  the  mansion,  strained  every  nerve  to 
outdo  their  past  triumphs  of  the  table.*      The  oyster  beds  had 

^ "  The  gentry  pretend  to  have  their  victuals  drest  and  served  up  as  nicely  as 
the  best  tables  in  London." — Beverly,  "  Hist,  of  Va." 


SOUTHERN  HOSPITALITY,  1 39 

been  raked,  the  seine  hauled,  the  fields  and  woods  scoured  for 
game.  Riding,  fishing,  strolling,  reading  aloud  the  last  batch  of 
Spectators  or  Gentleman  s  Magazines^  and  dozing,  was  the  order  of 
the  day,  and,  after  the  grand  dinner,  the  card  party,  and  the  min- 
uet, or  Virginia  reel,  the  whole  household,  guests,  family,  and  ser- 
vants, gathered  together  in  the  library  to  close  the  evening  with  a 
service  read  by  the  master  of  the  house  from  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  Happy  was  the  host  who  saw  his  stables  filled  with 
his  neighbors'  horses,  his  coach-house  crowded  with  their  carriages, 
and  his  fields  torn  up  by  the  cobs  of  the  merry  hunters  ;  nor  did 
he  hesitate  when  he  and  his  had  to  turn  out  of  their  quarters  to 
make  room  for  the  crowd  of  friends  and  kin.  The  departure  was 
even  more  impressive  than  the  arrival,  for,  grudging  every  instant 
of  his  friends'  society,  loath  to  say  good-by,  and  anxious  to  post- 
pone the  moment  when  his  hospitable  attentions  must  terminate, 
the  head  of  the  house  mounted  his  horse,  and,  attended  by  his 
sons,  escorted  the  cavalcade  and  train  of  coaches,  until  the  next 
cross-roads,  by  separating  the  party,  broke  it  up.  Then  they 
pulled  bridle,  and,  when  the  last  farewells  were  said,  rode  quietly 
back  home,  and  the  plantation  subsided  into  its  wonted  monot- 
ony. 

Nor  was  this  freehandedness  lacking  in  refinement.  At  the  time 
when  the  squirearchy  of  England  was  marring  its  hospitality  with 
the  coarseness  of  mere  profusion,  and  with  a  more  obnoxious 
coarseness  of  speech,  and  was  finding  its  highest  pleasure  in 
drenching  its  neighbors  with  seas  of  brown  October,  the  squire- 
archy of  the  South  was  gracing  its  social  intercourse  with  manners 
acquired  in  the  most  polite  circles  of  Europe,  and  was  setting 
before  its  guests  wines,  which  were  taken  with  the  same  gusto  they 
would  have  commanded  had  they  been  sipped  among  the  vine- 
yards of  the  Garonne. 

As  winter  is  the  season  of  repose  for  the  agriculturist,  so  was  it 
with  the  planter.  The  crops  sent  to  market,  and  the  shooting 
season  over  for  the  year,  there  was  nothing  to  pin  him  down  to 
the  plantation,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  the  annually 
recurring  desire  of  change  of  scene  to  induce  him  to  leave  home 
for  a  time.  The  natural  object  of  this  erratic  inclination  was  the 
capital  of  his  province.  Then  it  was  that  Annapolis  and  Williams- 
burg appeared  in  all  their  glory.     The  family  sloop  conveyed  the 


I40  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

household  to  its  destination,  or  the  family  coach,  with  the  arms  of 
the  house  emblazoned  on  its  panels,  and  with  its  negro  postillions 
and  six,  toiled  through  the  mire,  loaded  down  with  the  wife  and 
daughters,  while  the  august  head  followed  after  in  a  gig,  or,  on 
horseback,  accompanied  by  his  sons  and  servants,  rode  by  the 
side  of  the  coach  conversing  with  the  ladies,*  or  scoured  ahead 
to  order  refreshments  on  the  arrival  of  the  carriage  at  the  inns,  or 
lingered  in  the  rear  to  urge  on  the  baggage.  Once  at  the  capital, 
no  lord  at  Bath  could  have  assumed  grander  state,  and  cards, 
routs,  balls,  dinners,  and  suppers  were  the  order  of  the  day  and 
night.  The  House  of  Delegates  in  the  morning,  the  ordinary 
at  noon  for  punch  and  politics,  a  grand  dinner  in  the  evening,  and 
a  ball  at  the  government  house,  or  an  assembly,  as  it  was  called, 
at  night, — such  was  the  daily  round.  The  society  was  unexcep- 
tionable, the  manners  were  courtly,  and  the  habits,  though  much 
wine  was  drunk,  immeasurably  better  than  those  of  the  same  class 
in  the  British  isles  or  on  the  continent.  With  the  adjournment  of 
the  Legislature,  or  even  before,  but  not  until  the  fashions  of  the 
year  had  arrived  out  from  London,  the  family  returned  to  the 
plantation  in  the  same  style  in  which  they  had  left  it,  and,  tired 
with  gayety,  settled  contentedly  down  to  what  it  deemed  its  real 
life,  that  is  to  say,  life  on  the  plantation. 

As  a  boy,  the  Virginian  or  Marylander,  when  not  in  the  school- 
room with  his  tutor,  roamed  the  fields  with  his  gun,  attended  by 
his  negro,  who  was  at  once  his  servant  and  companion,  or  spurred 
his  horse  through  the  lonely  woods.  As  a  youth  he  went  to  Eng- 
land for  his  university  education,'  and  when,  after  this  had  been 
completed,  and  it  had  been  polished  with  all  the  accomplishments 
he  could  pick  up  during  a  season  of  London  society,  or  by  the 
grand  tour,  he  returned  to  the  barbarism  of  America,  it  was  to  a 
great  wide-spreading  house,"  built,  probably,  in  the  days  of  his 
grandfather,  of  bricks  brought  from  England,  and  which,  posted 
on  an  eminence  commanding  a  charming  view,  and  with  lawns 
stretching  down  to  the  water,  was  embosomed  in  trees,  was  stocked 
with  books,  family  pictures,  and  old  plate,  and  was  flanked  by 

*  Randall's  **  Life  of  Jefferson,"  i,  chap.  i. 
"  Jones,  "  Present  State  of  Va." 
'  Beverly,  "  Hist,  of  Va." 


DIRECTNESS  OF  SOUTHERN  TRADE.  I4I 

rows  of  negro  quarters  where  dwelt  a  multitude  to  wait  on  him  of 
those  whom  he  could  call  his  own.  He  raised  his  crops,  bought 
land — he  never  sold  any  unless  compelled, — bred  stock,  chased 
foxes,  hunted  game,  fished  the  rivers,  entertained  his  neighbors, 
talked  politics,  cared  kindly  for  his  servants,  was  attached  to  his 
church,'  loved  his  wife  and  children,  and  when  all  this  was  over, 
his  bones  were  laid  away  to  rest  in  the  soil  he  had  been  so  fond 
of,  and  in  sight  of  the  home  that  had  sheltered  him. 

After  all,  this  life  was  a  simple  one,  and  was  invested  with  the 
dignity  which  always  accompanies  simplicity.  Its  constitution 
was  patriarchal,  and  the  manners  that  expressed  it  were  as  simple 
and  unaffected  as  itself.  The  very  element  of  trade  that  was  in 
it,  insignificant  as  it  was,  was  characterized  by  a  directness  which 
is  refreshing  to  look  back  upon.  Every  tide-water  plantation 
had  a  wharf  at  which  there  touched,  once  a  year,  a  vessel  from 
London  or  Bristol,  owned  in  part  or  wholly  by  the  planter,  and 
which,  having  made  the  outward-bound  voyage  by  way  of  the 
West  Indies,  at  last  landed  his  supplies  for  the  year  before  the 
door.  On  its  arrival,  the  negroes  would  empty  the  storehouse  of 
its  contents,  and  rolling  the  hogsheads  down  to  the  ship,  would 
put  them  on  board.  Its  freight  taken,  the  vessel  would  then  set 
sail ;  often  with  the  planter  himself  or  some  of  his  family,  as  pas- 
sengers, going  out  to  visit  their  English  relations  or  to  travel  on 
the  continent.  When  it  reached  its  destination,  the  factor,  or  con- 
signee, would  sell  the  cargo,  and  remit  the  proceeds,  less  the 
amount  required  for  the  next  year's  supplies,  which  were  sent 
back  by  the  vessel  on  her  return.  This  purchase  of  supplies  was 
rendered  necessary  by  the  fact  of  their  being  no  manufactures  in 
the  Southern  colonies,  the  most  common  utensils  having  to  be 
bought  in  England." 

Such  was  the  extent  to  which  commerce  was  carried  on  the 
plantations,  or,  such  at  least  it  was  in  the  palmy  days  of  to- 
bacco culture  ;  for,  as  that  declined,  and  the  exactions  of  the 
Acts  of  Trade  increased,  so  declined  the  fortunes  of  the  planter, 
until  the  English  factor,  by  advancing  money  to  supply  the  recur- 
ring deficits,  stood  in  the  position  of  creditor,  and  thus  the  ser- 
vant became  greater  than  the  master.     At  the  time  of  the  Revo- 

'  •*  Virginia  may  be  justly  esteemed  the  happy  retreat  of  true  Britons  and 
true  Churchmen." — Jones,  "  Present  State  of  Va.,"  48. 
'Beverly,  iv,  58;  Abbe  Raynal,  "  Hist.  Brit.  Settlements,"  etc.,  i,  198. 


142  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

lution,  the  indebtedness  of  the  planters  to  the  London  and  Bris- 
tol merchants  had  become  burdensome,  and  being  attributed,  as 
in  part  it  was,  to  the  onerous  taxation  imposed  by  the  Navigation 
Act  and  the  Acts  of  Trade,  it  incited  the  disposition  of  these  col- 
onists toward  independence/ 

The  colonial  squirearchy  of  the  South  was  evidently  similar  to 
that  from  which  it  sprung,  and  illustrates  what  has  already  been 
said'  concerning  the  spirit  of  English  colonization.  The  branch 
cut  from  the  stock  in  England,  and  planted  in  America,  grew  right 
on  perfectly  independent  of  the  parent,  and  developed  the  same 
form,  modified  only  by  difference  of  conditions,  simply  be- 
cause, under  the  exercise  of  free  action,  the  same  principles  were 
brought  into  play  in  Virginia  as  in  England,  and  expressed  them- 
selves in  the  same  way. 

The  squirearchy  of  the  south  had,  for  example  and  support, 
that  of  England  in  its  brightest  days.  It  was  the  squires  who 
constituted  the  bone  and  sinew  of  England,  from  the  time  of  the 
Restoration  down  to  that  period,  when,  weakened  by  the  brilliant 
but  undermining  policy  of  Chatham,  they  succumbed  to  the  ag- 
grandizement of  the  lords  on  the  one  hand  and  the  encroachments 
of  the  commercial  classes  on  the  other.  During  all  this  time  they 
supplied  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  with  conservatism, 
and  its  armies  and  navies  with  men  and  money.  Their  influence 
in  Parliament,  during  this  period,  was  paramount,  and,  as  in  Par- 
liament, so  in  the  Cabinet.  The  English  squire  was  rough, 
homely,  attached  to  Church  and  State,  was  fond  of  field  sports, 
and  was  the  very  incarnation  of  conservatism.  He  was  tenacious 
of  custom,  slow  to  move,  and  was  absolutely  immovable  when  a 
personal  right  was  at  stake,  and  his  love  of  country  was  of  a 
healthy,  stubborn  sort.  He  stood  between  the  aristocracy  and  the 
yeomanry,  with  qualities  and  habits  derived  from  each  ;  but,  with 
two  classes,  or,  rather,  divisions  of  society  above  him,  he  centred 
in  himself  all  the  political  forces  which  could  be  expressed  by  the 
term  "  commons,"  save  what  the  rapidly  growing  commercial 
classes  kept  constantly  taking  from  him  more  and  more.  He  be- 
came a  great  man  under  Walpole  and  Marlborough,  and  held  his 
own   until  the  lords  and  merchants,  through  the  tongue  of  the 

*  "  Hist.  Brit.  Settlements,"  etc.,  id,^  id,  '  Page  49. 


THE   COLONIAL   SQUIREARCHY.  I43 

first  Pitt,  sounded  the  hour  of  his  decay  ;  then  he  gradually- 
declined,  and  went  out  in  glory  at  Waterloo.  He  was  no  longer 
needed.  An  era  which  had  no  use  for  him  had  dawned  on  Eng- 
land ;  an  era  which  saw  his  acres  swallowed  up  in  the  already 
overgrown  estate  of  his  neighbor  and  kinsman,  the  lord,  and  which 
turned  the  old  hall  into  a  tenant  house.  From  before  the  insatia- 
ble baron,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  hostile  genius  of  Thread- 
needle  street  on  the  other,  his  estate  disappeared  ;  and,  with  the 
disappearance  of  his  manor,  he,  too,  vanished. 

It  was  from  the  ranks  of  the  squirearchy  that  the  sea-board 
planters  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  were  chiefly  recruited,  and  it 
was  from  the  English  squire  that  they  inherited  their  principles 
and  instincts.  But  in  America  there  was  much  to  modify  and 
elevate  the  characteristics  which  in  England  maintained  their 
footing  with  rustic  obstinacy.  Here  the  planter  had  no  class 
whatever  above  him.  Lords,  there  were  none  ;  and  as  for  king, 
he  was  too  remote  to  be  any  thing  but  a  sentiment.  There  were 
no  commercial  classes  worth  mentioning  ;  and  as  for  the  laboring 
classes,  they  were  his  slaves,  he  carried  them  in  his  pocket.  He 
was,  in  fact,  sole  lord  of  these  realms,  and  his  position  was,  in 
reality,  the  most  exclusively  aristocratic  of  any  this  side  of  the 
religious  aristocracy  of  India,  on  which  he  looked  with  the  con- 
tempt of  a  conqueror,  or  of  Japan,  of  which  he  knew  nothing. 
Socially,  on  his  own  plantation,  he  was  an  autocrat.  This  mo- 
nopoly of  political  power,  combined  with  the  exclusive  occupancy 
of.  the  social  heights,  profoundly  modified  his  relations  to  society, 
and  gave  him  an  aristocratic  cast  his  cousin  of  England  did  not 
possess.  The  latter  was  only  partly  aristocratic  ;  his  head  was 
indeed  of  brass,  but  his  feet  were  of  clay.  Not  so  the  Virginian. 
The  whole  constitution  of  the  society  in  which  he  lived  tended 
more  and  more  toward  an  aristocracy  pure  and  simple,  and  the 
man  was  wholly  an  aristocrat.  With  him  class  instinct  had  only 
to  concern  itself  with  keeping  his  class  inviolate,  while  with  the 
Englishman,  it  looked  toward  the  enlargement  of  the  commons* 
rights,  and,  under  the  influence  of  trade,  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
nation.  It  modified,  too,  the  Southerner's  personal  characteristics, 
and  rendered  haughty  him,  who,  in  England,  would  have  been 
simply  exclusive.  Moreover,  one  lived  in  isolation,  the  other  in 
society ;  so  that  while  the  Englishman  had  ever  before  him  the 


144  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

repressing  presence  of  his  superiors,  the  Virginian  was  account- 
able to  no  one  for  his  actions,  and  his  conduct  was  uninfluenced 
by  any  but  his  equals.  As  tenacious  of  his  rights  as  the  Eng- 
lishman, and  as  obstinate  in  maintaining  them,  his  sense  of  free- 
dom from  restraint  made  him  more  sociable  and  accessible,  his 
manners  were  more  cultivated,  and  travel  being  a  part  of  his  ed- 
ucation in  the  days  when  the  young  squires  never  went  abroad, 
he  was  thus  earlier  open  to  foreign  influences  than  one  living  in 
the  heart  of  England,  and  more  expansive  than  he  whose  vision 
was  bounded  by  the  waves  which  begirt  his  island/  Thus,  equally 
attached  to  freedom,  he  was  broader  in  his  views  of  it,  and  more 
haughty  in  its  assertion,  and,  being  quick  to  take  offence,  he  was 
more  alert  in  guarding  it,  and  more  ready  in  its  defence.  With 
him  the  spirit  of  liberty  naturally  became  fierce. 

Such  was  the  colonial  squirearchy,  such  the  constitution  of 
society  on  the  sea-board  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and  such  the 
manners  that  affected  the  growth  of  liberty  in  that  part  of  our 
country.  The  piedmont,  or  that  portion  lying  between  the  low- 
lands and  the  Blue  Ridge,  was  gradually  overspread  by  this  class, 
though  in  this  region  it  received  an  infusion  of  population  not  so 
intensely  aristocratic.  On  the  downfall  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and  upon  the  Restoration,  numbers  of  those  not  in  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England  made  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  the 
Carolinas  their  abiding-place.  As  the  territory  of  the  lowlands 
was  mostly  at  that  time  already  occupied,  necessity  compelled  the 
immigrants  to  go  further  west,  and  thus  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  as 
it  is  called,  or  that  part  of  the  colony  lying  between  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  the  Alleghenies,  received  an  influx  of  population. 
Even  here  large  bodies  of  land  had  been  taken  up  and  held  by 
the  wealthy  of  both  America  and  England,  but  the  mass  of  soil 
still  remained  to  the  crown,  and  that  possessed  by  subjects  was, 
sooner  or  later,  thrown  on  the  market  created  by  this  and  ensuing 
immigration.  Among  this  population,  which,  the  stirring  times 
it  had  passed  through  had  rendered  somewhat  restive  and  intrac- 

* "  The  manners  of  the  English  gentry  in  this  age  were  in  a  great  measure 
purely  national ;  and,  except  at  Court,  had  received  from  foreign  nations  neither 
polish  nor  corruption.  To  travel  had  not  yet  grown  to  be  a  very  common  prac- 
tice. It  was  not  yet  that  a  visit  to  more  genial  climes,  or  more  lovely  land- 
scapes, was  the  best  preparation  for  afterward  living  happy  and  contented  in 
our  own."    Lord  Mahon,  "  Hist.  Eng.,"  cap.  i. 


CHURCH  AND   STATE.  I45 

table,  sprung  up  an  opposition,  which,  on  the  organization  of  the 
State  government,  culminated  in  the  downfall  of  the  Church  Es- 
tablishment. These  people,  as  regards  religion,  were  mixed,  but 
in  respect  to  race,  they  were  at  first  as  homogeneous  as  those  of 
the  sea-board,  though  afterward  they  became  infused  with  Scotch, 
Scotch-Irish,  and  even  continental  blood.  The  political  constitu- 
tion of  the  colony,  therefore,  while  more  freely  criticised  perhaps 
than  by  the  lowland  planters,  was  not  molested  by  them ;  but 
with  the  growing  influx  of  Dissenters  the  tide  naturally  continued 
to  rise  against  the  Church.  Those  who  had  been  provoked,  if 
not  actually  moved,  to  emigrate  from  England  by  reason  of  the 
limitations  there  imposed  on  the  enjoyment  of  their  faith,  chafed 
at  finding,  on  their  arrival,  the  very  same  bonds  the  Parliaments 
of  the  Commonwealth  had  unloosed.  The  new-comers  had  not 
come  over  with  any  disposition  toward  paying  tithes  to  what  they 
had  once  humbled  in  the  dust,  nor,  by  so  doing,  to  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  an  Establishment  which  had  kept  its  footing  in 
spite  of  them,  and  which  boasted,  that  on  that  soil  its  flag  had 
never  been  struck  ;  and  they  fretted  at  the  thought  of  subjec- 
tion to  the  intolerance  they  had  once  protested  against,  but 
which  they  themselves  had,  in  the  day  of  their  power,  inflicted 
on  their  countrymen.  But  there  was  no  help  for  it.  The 
country,  long  before  their  coming,  had  been  laid  off  accord- 
ing to  the  ecclesiastical  division  of  parishes,  where  the  min- 
isters of  the  Church  of  England  were  entitled  to  glebe,  house 
and  land,  and  whence  they  drew  salaries  for  which  all  alike  were 
tithed.  This  division  of  the  territory  was  firmly  established,  it 
had  become  familiar  to  the  people,  and  time  was  already  bringing 
to  the  support  of  the  wealthy  planters,  who  upheld  it  as  the  work 
of  their  own  hands,  the  disinclination  to  disturb  an  accepted 
system,  and  that  dread  of  innovation  which  always  overhangs  a 
conservative  community.  Any  system  which  compels  a  man  to 
pay  for  another's  enjoyment,  is  wrong  on  the  face  of  it ;  and  if 
the  wrong  is  aggravating  when  that  enjoyment  is  exercised  at  the 
cost  of  those  to  whom  it  is  actually  repulsive,  much  more  is  it  so, 
when  those  who  enjoy  are  in  the  minority,  and  those  who  suffer 
are  in  the  majority.'     But  freedom  of  conscience  was  not  one  of 

*  "  Autobiog.  Memoir  of  Jefferson,"  ed.  1829,  pp.  31,  32  ;  "Notes  on  Vir- 
ginia," Query  xvii.  '*  Two  thirds  of  the  people  had  become  Dissenters  at  the 
commencement  of  tlie  Revolution,"  The  proportion  was  much  greater  in  the 
frontier  C(mntries  where  there  were  hardly  any  Churchmen, — Girardin,  181. 


H^  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  shining  qualities  of  Virginia  ;  the  Church  members,  though  a 
minority  of  the  population,  constituted  the  majority  of  the  Legis- 
lature, and,  being  human,  acted  on  the  rule  that  they  should  keep 
who  have  the  power ;  and,  besides,  they  were  indisposed  to  accord 
to  Dissenters  in  America  the  religious  freedom  they  had  abused 
in  Europe,  They  accordingly  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  complaint,  and 
the  Establishment,  with  its  obnoxious  parishes,  remained  until 
1776,  when  the  first  republican  Legislature  was  crowded  with  peti- 
tions to  abolish  this  "spiritual  tyranny."  "These,"  said  Thomas 
Jefferson,  "  brought  on  the  severest  contests  in  which  I  have  ever 
been  engaged."  The  struggle  ended  in  the  subversion  of  the  Estab- 
lishment, and,  in  the  end,  freedom  of  conscience  (though  with  limi- 
tations) maintained  its  sway  in  Virginia  ;  not,  as  far  as  it  appears, 
from  any  great  motive  of  reform,  but  from  the  circumstances 
which  gave  the  control  of  the  Legislature  to  those  who  were  no 
longer  disposed  to  pay  for  what  they  did  not  get,  nor  to  accept 
what  their  consciences  rejected,  and  who  resented  what,  assuredly, 
was  an  imposition  on  personal  rights. 

Except  the  more  progressive  cast  the  discussion  of  this  subject 
betrayed  in  this  portion  of  the  population,  it  cannot  be  said  that 
their  institutions  and  manners  differed  so  greatly  from  those  of 
the  sea-board  as  to  demand  especial  observation.  There  was  ap- 
parently greater  mental  activity  and  acuteness  ;  domestic  life  was 
more  homely  and  with  less  state  than  that  maintained  on  the  great 
plantations  of  the  lowlands;  but  there  was  the  same  lack  of  a  mid- 
dle class,  though  a  tendency  toward  one  manifested  itself  more 
speedily  ;  there  was  the  same  agricultural  basis  of  society,  and 
the  same  distinction  between  owners  and  slaves.  Two  differences, 
however,  existed,  which  may  be  noticed.  One  of  these,  the  lack 
of  navigable  waters,  forced  on  the  population  a  road-system, 
which,  compelling  united  exertion,  to  some  degree,  broke  in  upon 
the  isolation  of  plantation  life,  and  paved  the  way  to  greater 
association.  The  other  was  the  nature  of  the  crops,  which  were 
composed  of  the  cereals.  On  the  sea-board,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, tobacco  was  the  favored  crop,  and  the  sole  one  which  in 
America  then  conferred  distinction.  It  was  also  the  most  valua- 
ble, and,  in  colonial  days,  the  tobacco-planter  was  thus  invested 
with  the  special  dignity  and  importance,  which  in  our  own  times 
we  have    seen   distinguish   the   cotton  lord.     West  of   the  Blue 


THE  FRONTIER,  147 

Ridge,  however,  the  productions  of  the  soil  conveyed  no  such 
distinction.  What  the  farm  produced  there  could  be  produced 
almost  everywhere  else.  The  agriculturist  was  no  longer  a 
planter,  he  was  a  farmer ;  although  his  "  farm  "  might  be  greater 
than  a  lowland  plantation.  The  valley  was  but  an  extension  of 
the  one  which  crossed  southeastern  Pennsylvania,  and  the  crops 
were  altogether  the  same  as  those  raised  by  the  peasantry  which 
they  looked  down  upon,  and  which  to  this  day  are  called  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Dutch."  Thus  the  aristocracy  of  the  valley  was 
not  supported  by  the  agricultural  distinction,  nor,  indeed,  by  the 
wealth  which  invigorated  so  strongly  the  class  feeling  of  the  sea- 
board. The  dweller  between  the  Apalachian  ranges,  from  the 
force  of  the  system  under  which  he  lived,  was  an  aristocrat,  but, 
as  his  aristocratic  feelings  had  not  so  great  a  number  of  subjects 
to  display  itself  upon  as  had  those  of  the  lowlander,  they  were  not 
so  often  called  into  play,  and  they  were  neither  so  intense  nor  so 
symmetrically  developed. 

2.  Beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghenies,  north  and 
south,  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Chattahoochee,  a  fringe  of  popula- 
tion was  displayed,  which  effected  the  double  purpose  of  pro- 
tecting that  to  which  it  was  attached,  and  of  forming  a  warp  from 
which  a  closer  woof  was  to  be  made.  These  sojourners  in  the 
wilderness  were  known  as  frontier  settlers  or  backwoodsmen. 
Here  society  bordered,  in  nature  as  well  as  in  location,  on  savage 
life.  It  was  dispersed,  and  those  who  composed  it  were  isolated 
to  the  last  degree.  It  constituted  an  advance  guard  of  civilization 
— it  served,  in  fact,  as  a  picket  to  the  army  in  its  rear — and  was 
the  rudimental  form  of  social  crystallization.  It  was  made  up,  for 
the  most  part,  from  the  humbler  classes  of  society,  from  those 
adventurous  spirits  who  were  too  restive  to  endure  the  restraints 
imposed  by  order,  and  from  those  who,  destitute  of  the  means  to 
locate  themselves  where  land  had  a  marketable  value,  were  con- 
strained to  seek  the  parts  where  it  was  to  be  purchased  at  the 
cost  of  the  comforts  of  civilization.  Indeed,  none  had  it  in  their 
power  to  pay  this  price  but  the  hardy,  the  athletic,  and  the  advent- 
urous, or  those  who  had  been  previously  inured  to  the  hardships 
awaiting  them  by  a  mode  of  life  which  rendered  them  indifferent 
to  what  a  higher  class  would  deem  necessities.     These  people, 


148  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

therefore,  started  into  the  woods  a  hardy,  athletic,  and  adventur- 
ous race,  and  their  life,  when  on  the  ground,  developed  to  an 
incredible  degree  physical  endurance,  acuteness  of  observation, 
rapidity  of  action,  fertility  of  resources,  and  the  faculty  of  making 
a  little  go  a  great  way.  They  went,  rifle  in  hand,  and,  with  the 
tomahawk  constantly  before  their  eyes,  sought  in  the  solitudes  of 
the  forest  the  sustenance  which  the  patch  of  ground,  still  encum- 
bered with  stumps,  was  not  yet  fully  able  to  yield.  These  hunt- 
ing and  trapping  expeditions  were  prolonged  for  months,  and  often 
extended  miles  into  a  country  swarming  with  hostile  Indians,  and 
where  it  was  death  to  set  up  a  shelter,  to  build  a  fire,  or  to  use 
any  more  audible  weapon  than  the  bow  and  arrow,  or  the  spear. 
Such  an  ever-present  mistrust  of  the  very  ground  he  trod  upon 
made  the  frontiersman  extremely  cautious  and  observant. 
But  he  had  to  take  his  natural  rest,  during  which  he  was 
helpless,  and  he  would  have  been  more  than  human  had  not 
familiarity  with  danger  sometimes  thrown  him  off  his  guard. 
Often,  therefore,  he  went  forth  never  to  return,  and  it  was  not 
until  long  after  all  danger  had  passed  away,  and  another  genera- 
tion had  taken  his  place,  that  the  startled  farmer  or  sportsman 
would  stumble  upon  his  remains,  where  a  hollow  skull,  dented  by 
a  hatchet,  a  little  heap  of  bones,  and  a  few  shreds  of  clothing, 
with  an  arrow  sticking  in  a  neighboring  tree,  told  his  story  but 
too  well.  Then  the  elders  of  the  vicinage  had  their  recollections 
stirred  to  the  point  of  remembering,  that  before  they  had  settled 
in  that  locality,  they  had  heard  that  such-a-one  had  declared  his 
intention  of  hunting  in  that  region  and  had  departed,  but  that  he 
had  never  come  back.  Where  all  trace  of  the  missing  was  lost, 
his  fate  was  certain,  and  easily  described  :  he  had  been  taken 
captive,  tortured,  and  burned  at  the  stake. 

These  were  the  men  who,  pushing  ahead  of  civilization,  hewed 
out  the  way  for  its  advance  into  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  Led  on 
by  the  excitement  of  the  hunt  and  the  love  of  adventure,  they 
spread  over  the  prairies  north  of  the  river,  and,  south  of  it,  drove 
the  Indian  from  the  buffalo-haunted  meadows  of  the  "dark  and 
bloody  ground."  The  fury  of  the  elements  could  not  make  them 
pause,  nor  could  any  danger  deter  them.  They  loved  che  soli- 
tude of  the  wilderness,  and  so  much  were  they  a  part  of  it,  and  so 
estranged  did  they  become  from  society,  that  no  denizen  of  the 


THE  FRONTIERSMEN.  I49 

woods  fled  sooner  at  the  approach  of  civilization  than  they.  But, 
though  thus  shunning  the  proximity  of  neighbors,  they,  neverthe- 
less, considered  themselves  the  guardians  of  their  kind,  and,  at  the 
appearance  of  danger,  turned  on  their  tracks,  and  braving  every 
storm,  swam  rivers,  crossed  mountains,  traversed  forests,  and  ran 
the  gauntlet  of  enemies,  to  warn  a  young  settlement  of  its  ap- 
proach, and  to  lend  a  hand  in  warding  it  off.  In  respect  to  phys- 
ical wants,  they  were  as  independent  of  the  world  as  ever  a  Dioge- 
nes or  an  Epictetus  could  wish.  Their  bed  was  the  ground, 
their  drink  was  water,  their  fuel  was  at  hand,  their  game  afforded 
them  food  and  clothing,  and  their  rifles  supplied  them  with 
what  the  elements  did  not.  They  could  drive  a  nail  with  a  bullet 
at  forty  paces,  bark  a  squirrel  at  fifty,  and  snuff  a  candle  as  far  as 
the  wick  could  be  discerned.*  Danger  had  a  fascination  for  them, 
and  they  delighted  in  matching  their  cunning  with  that  of  the  In- 
dian, and  their  endurance  with  his.  They  surpassed  the  savage 
in  his  peculiar  skill,  they  outwitted  him  on  his  own  ground,  and, 
of  course,  were  richer  in  the  resources  of  civilization  ;  yet,  as  the 
same  life  compelled  the  same  habits,  they  did  not  disdain  the  wild 
appearance  such  life  brought  with  it,  but  were  delighted  beyond 
measure  when,  on  their  rare  visits  to  the  settlement,  they  were 
told  that  they  looked  like  Indians  ;  and  when  the  children  mistook 
them  for  such  it  was  homage  to  their  adaptability  to  nature.* 
Like  the  Indian  they  became  taciturn  among  strangers,  and  like 
him,  too,  their  one  vice  was  inebriety.  Otherwise  their  lives  were 
pure  ;  from  necessity  it  may  be,  but  still  the  modern  vices  of  the 
frontier  were  almost  unknown  to  them.  Sometimes  they  mar- 
ried squaws,  and  reared  a  family  of  half-breeds,  and  there  are  in- 
stances even  of  their  joining  tribes  of  Indians.  Though  first  on 
the  ground,  and  with  every  facility  of  choice,  they  rarely  acquired 
land.  Stability  was  not  in  their  nature,  and  they  were  indifferent 
to  possessions  which  might  have  been  purchased  with  the  proceeds 
of  a  season's  hunt,  and  were  content  to  "  squat"  without  inquir- 
ing into  the  title  to  the  ground,  or  even  if  there  were  one.  All 
they  asked  of  life  was  plenty  of  game,  plenty  of  adventure,  and  no 
civilized  neighbors. 

At  the  first  notes  of  a  war  between  England  and  France,  they 

*  Audubon's  "  Travels." 

'  Darby's  letter  to  The  Republic. 


ISO  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

busied  themselves  in  observing  ihe  attitude  of  the  Indians,  and  in 
inducing  them  to  side  with  the  former  power.  Whether  success- 
ful in  this  object  or  not,  they  soon  appeared  at  headquarters  with 
their  budget  of  information,  and  with  whatever  allies  their  per- 
suasion had  gained  ;  and,  at  all  events,  offered  their  own  services 
as  scouts  or  rangers.  In  this  capacity  they  were  invaluable. 
Their  primitive  habits  dispensed  with  the  necessity  of  supply 
trains,  for  they  were  content  with  what  could  be  carried  in  their 
pockets,  and,  moreover,  they  needed  no  shelter.  They  covered  the 
column's  front  and  flanks,  and  taking  to  the  brush  with  the  readi- 
ness of  savages,  they  rendered  it  impossible  for  an  attack  to  occur 
without  warning.  Luxury  being  unknown  to  them  was  not  missed. 
They  never  indulged  even  in  the  soldier's  privilege  of  grumbling, 
but,  disdaining  it  as  a  mark  of  incapacity,  endured  extreme  fatigue 
without  a  murmur.    Such  were  the  men  who  covered  the  frontiers. 

The  part  enacted  by  these  men  in  the  civilization  of  the  coun- 
try was  no  mean  one  ;  they  paved  the  way  for  its  advance.  Pre- 
ceded by  the  Leatherstockings,  and  under  their  protection,  our 
frontier  constantly  advanced,  and,  like  the  god  Boundary  of  the 
Romans,  it  never  stopped  to  rest.  The  establishment  of  well- 
ordered  society  in  the  interior  was  the  same  everywhere  along  the 
border,  and  the  formation  of  one  community  illustrates  all.  The 
first  on  the  ground  were,  of  course,  the  rangers,  who,  according  to 
the  plan  of  historical  development,  led  the  way,  and  performed  the 
task  of  spying  out  the  land,  of  getting  a  proper  knowledge  of  its 
geography  and  resources,  and  of  securing  the  friendship  of  the 
aborigines  who  were  inclined  to  peace,  or  of  driving  out  those  who 
were  hostile.  These  rangers  were  the  Leatherstockings,  and  they 
were  succeeded  by  the  pioneers,  who  usually  appeared  in  small 
bands,  numbering  from  half  a  dozen  to  a  couple  of  scores,  and 
whose  first  business  was  the  erection  of  a  stockade  or  rude  fort  at 
the  junction  of  two  streams,  or  at  some  other  point  which  equally 
united  convenience  with  capacity  of  defence.  These  bands  would 
fell  the  timber  necessary  for  the  block-houses  and  dwellings  of  the 
fortifications,  dig  a  well,  plant  some  corn,  and  make  all  the  prepa- 
ration they  could  for  the  shelter  of  the  women  and  children,  who, 
if  they  had  not  already  appeared,  were  the  next  to  come.'     The 

*  The  men  went  in  the  spring,  the  families  followed  in  autumn. — Otzinachson. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF   SOCIETY.  I5I 

little  community  having  got  its  habitation,  and  a  name,  which,  if 
not  Indian,  at  least  savored  of  the  wildness  of  the  woods,  pro- 
ceeded to  break  the  ground  of  the  vicinity,  and  to  till  the  land. 
The  men  worked  ordinarily  in  gangs,  carried  their  rifles  with 
them  to  the  field,  and,  with  an  eye  to  security,  returned  at  night- 
fall to  their  families  within  the  stockade.  But,  for  the  first  season, 
by  reason  of  there  being  no  provisions  except  the  little  they 
brought  along  with  them,  and  for  many  seasons  afterward,  from  the 
insufficiency  of  the  crops  on  account  of  the  slow  destruction  by 
fire  or  frost  of  the  stumps  which  cumbered  the  ground,  the  men 
were  driven  to  eke  out  an  existence  by  hunting.  The  order  of 
nature  so  established  it,  that  the  game  lasted  until  the  fields  became 
sufficiently  productive,  and  thus  the  settlement  was  sustained. 

The  next  step  forward  in  the  development  of  society  was  taken 
after  the  great  Indian  fight,  which,  occurring  with  invariable  regu- 
larity, gave  the  rude  flourish  which  really  rung  up  the  curtain  of 
this  little  theatre.  For,  so  long  as  the  savages  were  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, expansion  was  difficult  and  dangerous,  immigration  was 
deterred,  and  the  settlement  was  confined  within  sight  or  sound  of 
the  block-houses.  With  the  defeat  of  the  Indians,  however,  the 
vicinity  was  cleared  of  danger,  and  the  families,  glad  to  be  re- 
leased from  their  narrow  confines,  ventured  to  build  cabins  on 
the  adjacent  tracts  of  land  from  which  each  had  made  its  selec- 
tion. The  stockade,  being  still  maintained  in  the  midst  of  the 
settlement  as  a  rallying  point  in  case  of  alarm,  naturally  became 
the  resort  of  the  settlers  for  supplies,  and  when  the  clearings  had 
become  farms,  and  the  population  had  multiplied  by  natural  in- 
crease and  immigration,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  it  too  has  burst 
its  bonds.  The  breastwork  and  log  cabins  have  disappeared,  frame 
or  brick  houses  have  been  erected,  the  road  has  become  a  street, 
and  stores  and  shops  have  taken  the  place  of  the  common  maga- 
zine. In  a  word,  a  village,  with  its  schools  and  churches,  has 
grown  up  amid  a  farming  community.  One  change,  however,  is 
to  be  noticed  with  regret ;  the  beautiful  Indian  name  is  gone,  and 
in  its  stead  there  flaunts  some  high-sounding  title  such  as  Athens, 
Rome,  or,  perhaps,  Baalbec.^     Before  this,  the   frontier  had  long 

'Any  one  glancing  at  the  map  of  our  then  Western,  but  now  Eastern  regions, 
might  suppose  that  the  demon  of  nomenclature,  before  smiting  the  door-posts 
of  their  towns,  had  just  emerged  from  the  index  of  some  ancient  history.  In 
fact,  it  did,  and  this  botch  of  the  pedagogues,  I  regret  to  say,  has  been  imitated 
all  over  the  West. 


152  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

ago  followed  the  sun  westward,  and,  departing,  carried  with  it  all 
trace  of  border  life.  The  principles  of  law  and  order  which  are 
henceforth  to  control  it  now  govern  society. 

But  one  step  more  is  certain  ;  the  erection  of  a  county.  On 
that  event,  a  court-house  takes  its  place  among  the  schools  and 
churches ;  the  village  becomes  a  borough,  the  borough  a  county 
town,  and  all  the  first  steps  of  civilization  have  been  taken  ;  it  is 
now  in  full  march.  Perhaps  the  future  will  make  a  city  of  the 
borough,  but,  should  that  happen,  society  will  only  be  an  ex- 
pansion of  what  already  exists,  and  the  course  of  civilization  pre- 
sent a  higher  tide  only  than  that  which  now  flows. 

Familiarity  with  the  principles  of  government  is  not  to  be 
looked  for  among  these  simple  settlers  and  hunters.  They  organ- 
ized society  from  instinct,  not  from  induction,  and  freedom  of 
individual  action  was  its  animating  principle,  not  from  philo- 
sophical forecast,  but  because  nature  had  ordained  it  to  be  the  soul 
of  their  social  life.  These  children  of  nature  acted  naturally,  and 
therefore  their  development  of  society  is  in  every  respect  as 
worthy  of  observation  as  was  tliat  of  their  ancestors,  ruder  even 
than  themselves,  the  Angles  and  Saxons.  Local  self-government 
was  the  direct  outgrowth  of  their  blood,  and  was  as  natural  to 
them  as  the  surrounding  forests  were  to  the  soil  on  which  they 
stood.  We,  consequently,  find  it  to  be  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  their  organization.  Whatever  affected  that,  affected  them  ; 
and,  inversely,  for  what  did  not  concern  them,  they  did  not  care. 
Of  the  imperial  government  they  knew  almost  nothing  ;  it  scarcely 
reached  them  :  and  if  even  to  the  cultivated  Virginian,  royalty 
was  but  a  sentiment,  what  a  mere  abstraction  must  it  have  been 
to  those  to  whom  the  most  positive  evidence  of  civilization  was  a 
piece  of  calico,  who  laughed  at  writs,  and  whose  notions  of  coercion 
were  limited  by  the  number  of  rifles  which  could  be  brought  to 
bear  on  an  offender.  Until  the  court-house  appears,  then,  the 
influence  of  the  central  government  may  be  entirely  left  out  in 
considering  their  social  development,  and  that  of  the  colonial 
taken  into  but  little  account ;  for  they  looked  to  this  only  in  dis- 
tress, and  turned  their  backs  on  it  the  moment  they  no  longer 
needed  its  help.^  The  restraints  of  order  in  a  dispersed  society 
*  This  independence  of  the  remote  governments,  imperial  and  colonial,  is 


FREE   SPIRIT  OF  FRONTIER  LIFE.  1 53 

were  little  needed,  and  what  were  necessary,  difficult  to  impose  : 
administration  was  therefore  slighted,  and  its  cares  sat  lightly  on 
authority.  Personal  liberty  was  the  soul  of  the  settlement,  and 
every  thing  like  government  was  measured  by  the  rule  that  alone 
laid  down.  That  their  ideas  of  freedom  were  limited  to  the  person 
of  the  citizen,  is  to  be  expected  when  we  observe,  that  they  were  a 
migrating  people,  whose  roaming  had  a  continent  for  its  field,  and 
was  restricted  only  by  the  opposition  of  savages  or  by  the  forces 
of  nature.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  among  those  whose 
notions  of  personal  freedom  were  bounded  only  by  the  moral 
law,  the  spirit  of  liberty  would  be  very  arrogant,  not  to  say  fierce, 
and  that  their  sense  of  allegiance,  from  the  nature  of  things  ex- 
ceedingly weak,  would  be  easily  extinguished.  So  it  was,  and 
when  the  troubles  concerning  the  Stamp  Act  arose,  what  affection 
these  people  had  for  the  crown  became  in  an  instant  alienated  for- 
ever. Not  that  they  were  moved  by  the  principle  underlying  a 
taxation  their  mode  of  life  would  rarely  call  on  them  to  pay,  but 
because  their  personal  feelings  outweighed  their  sense  of  political 
responsibility,  at  the  recollection  of  the  slights  which  had  been 
put  upon  them  during  the  French  wars  by  the  king's  troops,  the/ 
only  representatives  of  royalty  they  had  ever  seen,  and  because 
they  resented  the  arrogance  which  regarded  them  as  fit  only  to  be 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  for  those  who  sprang  from 
the  same  loins  and  were  no  better  than  themselves. 

shown  by  the  fact,  that,  with  an  utter  disregard  for  authority  of  any  kind,  set- 
tlements were  frequently  pushed  far  beyond  the  reach  of  civilization,  and  on 
disputed  territory  where  accountability  to  either  power  was  denied.  Yet  the 
process  of  social  organization  went  on  precisely  as  it  did  where  the  claims  of 
government  were  recognized,  and  the  remote  governments  were  not  submitted 
to,  until  civilization  had  reached  that  point  where  it  always  imposes  central 
control  on  its  children. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Manners  in  the  Middle  Provinces, 

3.  Between  the  Susquehanna  and  the  Hudson,  the  manners 
of  the  people  differed  much  from  those  of  the  Southern  and  the 
Northern  colonies.  In  the  agricultural  portion  of  the  Middle 
colonies  we  come  to  farms,  and  these  were  greater  than  the  farms 
of  New  England,  but  were  smaller  than  the  plantations  of  Virginia 
and  the  South.  On  the  seaboard  we  behold  commerce  in  its  best 
estate,  and  Philadelphia,  the  largest  and  most  populous  city  in 
British  America,  outshines  all  others  in  trade,  wealth,  hospitality, 
poHteness,  and  culture,  and  in  every  thing  which  gives  a  capital  its 
peculiar  features.  It  was  a  large  and  flourishing  city  when 
Boston  was  still  fearing  the  rivalry  of  Salem,^  when  New  York 
had  barely  crossed  Wall  street,  when  Annapolis,  Williamsburg,  and 
Charleston  were  yet  mere  villages,  and  before  Albany,  Pittsburg, 
Baltimore  and  New  Orleans  had  crept  beyond  their  stockades  or 
had  any  greater  distinction  than  what  their  names  could  give 
them.  It  was  essentially  English,  though  the  most  cosmopolitan 
of  American  capitals  in  aspect  and  character.  It  had  been 
founded  by  the  Friends  or  Quakers,  who,  for  a  long  time,  kept  the 
lead  in  wealth  and  influence  ;  but  the  inflowing  population  had 
brought  hither  a  class  which  soon  surpassed  all  others  in  culture 
and  the  higher  forms  of  education,  and  to  whom  the  colonial 
reputation  of  Philadelphia  for  refinement  was  mostly  due.  This 
class  belonged,  for  the  greater  part,  to  the  Church  of  England, 
and  was  that  which  built  the  now  venerable  and  historic  piles  of 
Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's,  and  the  one  whose  tombstones, 
with  their  quaint  inscriptions,  still  fill  these  church-yards.     The 

»"Fam.  Letters,"  John  Adams,  No.  5. 

154 


PHILADELPHIA.  155 

spirit  of  opposition  to  Quakerism  *  aided  its  natural  tendency  to  a 
mode  of  life  very  different  from  that  of  the  followers  of  Fox, 
and  broadly  marked  the  contrast  it  made  with  the  manners  and 
doctrines  of  the  Quakers.  It  constituted  the  progressive  party  in 
Philadelphia,  and  was  liberal  and  expansive  in  its  views  of  life. 
Coming  over,  when,  even  in  England,  the  hereditary  intolerance 
of  its  Church  had  wellnigh  disappeared,  and  at  a  time  when  it 
had  neither  the  opportunity  nor  the  disposition  to  display  any  of 
the  qualities  which  had  made  that  Church  obnoxious  to  the  Dis- 
senters, its  career,  as  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  was  on  the 
whole  a  tranquil  one,  and,  as  far  as  regards  social  life,  was  invested 
with  elegance  and  dignity  which  it  delights  its  successors  to  look 
back  upon.  As  a  party  it  was  strengthened  by  the  sympathy  of 
the  ever-increasing  immigration,  which,  as  fast  as  it  became  set- 
tled, arrayed  itself  in  opposition  to  the  Quaker  government,  and 
thus  its  influence  was  extended  far  beyond  the  city  and  its  neigh- 
borhood, and  expanded  constantly  from  day  to  day,  as  the  fron- 
tier kept  advancing.'  It  need  hardly  be  said,  that  its  spirit  was 
naturally  sympathethic  with  that  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  on  the 
one  hand,  and  with  New  York  on  the  other. 

It  was  this  class,  likewise,  which,  even  before  the  Revolution, 
bestowed  on  the  city  its  reputation  fur  excellence  in  law  and 
medicine. 

As  the  great  and  constantly  growing  commerce  of  Philadelphia 
broadened,  there  was  to  be  seen  there  a  greater  diversity  of  nation- 
alities than  in  any  other  city  in  America ;  and,  consequently, 
a  greater  diversity  of  manners,  and  not  a  little  of  the  refinement  of 
its  highest  classes,  were  due  to  the  immigration  it  welcomed,  when, 
in  consequence  of  the  insurrections  in  the  West  Indies  and  the 
religious  troubles  in  Europe,  it  became  the  refuge  of  many  foreign 
families.  These,  in  general,  were  French  by  birth  or  descent, 
and  Protestant  in  religion,  and  being  of  the  upper  classes,  affected 

'  "  As  the  chief  part  of  the  inhabitants  were  Quakers,  they  with  others  were 
and  are  concerned  in  acts  of  government  ;  but  as  the  province  increased  and 
prospered  in  every  respect,  many  of  other  persuasions  came  and  settled  here 
with  worldly  views,  who  have  formerly  attempted  to  wrest  the  civil  power  out 
of  the  Quakers'  hands,  as  it  is  very  probable  they  may  and  will  do  again." — 
Fishbourn  MS.;  Penn  and  Logan  Corresp.,  "  Mem.  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.,"  spardm, 

"  The  Germans,  however,  co-operated  with  the  Quakers,  through  sympathy 
with  the  doctrines  of  peace  maintained  by  the  latter.  See  sparsim,  Logan's 
Letters  in  Penn  and  Logan  Corresp.,  "  Mem.  Hist.  Soc.  Pa." 


15^  CONSrirUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

the  manners  of  society  by  adding  a  sprightliness  and  vivacity  not 
hitherto  possessed. 

This,  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  colonial  cities,  was,  too, 
the  most  stately.  From  the  earliest  period  of  its  existence,  life 
assumed  there  a  dignified  as  well  as  genial  aspect.  The  houses  of 
the  rich  were  spacious,  comfortable,  luxurious.  The  trade  with 
Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  and  even  from  far-off  China  and 
Bengal,  brought  to  its  doors  every  luxury  known  to  man  ;  its 
household  comforts  were  supplied  in  profusion  by  the  fertile 
regions  surrounding  it,  and  its  markets  were  filled  with  what  land, 
air,  and  water  could  furnish,  in  such  abundance  and  excellence, 
as  to  excite  the  admiration  and  wonder  of  the  stranger,  come  from 
where  he  might.'  Its  merchants  displayed  their  taste  and  riches  in 
town-houses  whose  gardens  stretched  down  to  the  water-side,  and 
in  country-houses  surrounded  by  lawns  and  groves,  from  whose 
broad  verandas  the  eye  took  in  scenes  which  might  charm  the 
wanderer  from  Hampshire  or  Devon.  Agriculture  filled  its  bins 
with  plenty,  and  trade  poured  opulence  upon  its  wharves. 

Nor  were  there  lacking  incentives  to  intellectual  exertion  and 
the  means  of  mental  culture.  Not  only  the  questions  of  local 
interest  called  into  activity  the  faculties  for  disputation,  but 
from  a  remote  period  of  colonial  existence,  the  mind  of  this  capi- 
tal was  reaching  forth  to  meet  that  of  Europe  in  fields  common 
to  both.  The  men  for  intellectual  work,  and  the  souls  with  lofty 
aspirations  were  there.  To  say  nothing  of  those  who,  in  the 
course  of  time,  made  the  name  of  Philadelphia  synonymous  with 
all  that  is  excellent  in  law  and  medicine,  there  were  Godfrey,  who 
invented  the  quadrant  ;  the  astronomer  Rittenhouse,  who  con- 
structed the  famous  orrery  ;  and  Franklin,  who  discovered  the 
transmitability  of  electricity,  and  whose  works  on  the  practical 
philosophy  of  life  belong  to  the  world.  In  the  earliest  days  of  the 
colony,  James  Logan  brought  over  with  his  books  a  love  of  them, 
and  to  his  latest  day  never  ceased  those  graceful  pursuits  which 
drew  to  his  seat  of  Stenton  the  companionship  of  the  rising  in- 
tellect of  America  and  the  sympathetic  correspondence  of  the  cul- 
tured abroad.  It  was  he  who,  dying,bequeathed  to  the  public  the 
literary  accumulations  of  a  lifetime,  and  who  left  behind  him  the 

'  '* it  is  allow'd  by  Foreigners  to  be  the  best  of  its  bigness  in  the  known 

world,  and  undoubtedly  the  largest  in  America." — Black's  "Journal,"  Pa. 
Mag.,  etc.,  i.  4.05. 


r  LEARNING  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  1 57 

Loganian  collection,'  which  to  this  day  remains  the  pride  of  that 
splendid  depository  of  thought,  the  Philadelphia  Library.  This 
cultivated  man  had  Pastorius,  Kelpius,  Lloyd,  Thomas,  Aquila 
Rose,  and  Story  for  his  companions,  and  graced  in  scholarly  re- 
tirement the  declining  years  of  his  life  by  translating  for  the  bene- 
fit of  his  fellow  men  the  "  De  Senectute"  of  Cicero.  It  was  after 
him  that  Shikellamy  named  his  son,  the  future  great  chief,  Logan, 
in  grateful  recollection  of  the  just  dealings  of  this  good  man  with 
the  Indians.' 

The  love  of  books  and  literature  breathed  into  the  colony  by 
these  men  was  not  lost.  After  them  came  Smith,  the  first  master 
of  what  is  now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  an  institution 
which,  from  that  time  to  this,  has  maintained  its  reputation  un- 
diminished, and  Shippen,  Webb,  Godfrey,  and  a  horde  of  lesser 
lights,  to  whom  literature  owes  no  debt,  it  is  true,  but  whose 
names  recall  an  intellectual  activity  not  to  be  despised.  Nor  is  it 
to  be  forgotten,  that  here  was  the  abode  of  him  to  whom  David 
Hume  thus  wrote :  "  America  has  sent  us  many  good  things, 
*  *  *  but  you  are  the  first  philosopher,  and  indeed  the  first 
great  man  of  letters,  for  whom  we  are  beholden  to  her."  The 
genius  of  Franklin  not  only  revivified  the  love  of  science  and 
literature,  of  which  Logan  in  his  day  had  set  the  good  example, 
but  stimulated  and  developed  it,  and  it  is  to  him  we  owe  such  in- 
stitutions as  the  Philadelphia  Library,  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,''  and  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge, 
with  which  it  combined. 

'  "  After  the  Tea  Table  was  remov'd,  we  were  going  to  take  leave,  but  it  ap- 
pear'd  we  must  first  view  his  Library,  which  was  Customary  with  him,  to  any 
Persons  of  Account.  He  had  really  a  very  fine  Collection  of  Books,  both  An- 
cient and  Modern,  he  seemed  to  Rcgrate  that  none  of  his  Sons  knew  how  to 
use  them,  and  that  he  design'd  them  as  a  Legacy  to  the  City  when  he  Died." — 
Journal  of  William  Black,  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  etc.,  vol.  i,  No.  4,  407.  It, 
with  the  Union  Library,  was  combined  with  the  Philadelphia  Library  in  1792. 

a  *»  We  got  to  Mr.  Logan's,  a  few  minutes  after  3,  and  found  him  hid  in  the 
Bushes,  an  expression  the  Indians  used  when  Treating  with  the  Province  at 
Philadelphia,  in  July,  1742,  saying,  *  They  were  sorry  to  find  their  Good  Friend 
James  Logan  hid  in  the  Bushes,'  Meaning,  it  gave  them  concern  their  Friend 
was  so  much  Oppress'd  with  Sickness  as  to  be  Oblig'd  to  live  a  Life  Retir'd 
from  Public  affairs :  he  had  been  a  very  great  Benefactor  to  the  Indians,  and 
conducted  several  Treaties  with  them,  and  they  having  always  found  him  true 
to  them,  had  an  Extraordinary  Regard  for  him  :  The  Commissioners  *  *  * 
told  him,  his  Advice  would  be  of  the  last  Consequence  to  them  in  Conducting 
the  Treaty."—/^.,  ibid.^  406-7. 

*  "  This  last  institution  is  erected  upon  an  admirable  plan,  and  is  by  far  the 


158  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

Of  the  social  life  of  Philadelphia  during  its  colonial  days,  there 
are  many  rtcords  and  traditions.  But  there  are  none  more  valuable 
and  intercstmg  than  the  "  Journal  of  William  Black,"  ^  a  Vir- 
ginian, who  recorded  the  events  and  the  impressions  made  upon 
him  during  a  visit  to  that  city  in  May  and  June,  1744.  Black  was 
a  native  of  Scotland,  and  accompanied,  in  the  character  of  secre- 
tary, the  commissioners  sent  by  Virginia  to  unite  with  the  com- 
missioners from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  in  a  treaty  with  the 
Iroquois,  or  Six  Nations,  having  reference  to  lands  west  of  the 
Alleghenies.  This  record  is  in  the  shape  of  a  Diary,  which  opens 
with  the  departure  of  the  yacht  Margaret  from  Stratford,  a  plan- 
tation on  the  James  River,  entertains  us  with  the  reception  of  his 
party  at  Annapolis,  in  Maryland,  and  finally  brings  us  to  Philadel- 
phia, after  the  Virginians  had  been  met,  at  the  Blue  Bell  Tavern, 
near  Darby,  by  a  deputation  of  officials  and  private  citizens  ap- 
pointed to  conduct  them  to  the  Governor's  house.  His  official 
position  brought  him  in  daily  contact  with  the  governing  element, 
and  opened  to  him  the  hospitable  doors  of  the  highest  classes.  As 
his  diary  was  jotted  down  without  a  thought  of  publication,  the 
facts  noted  are  to  be  relied  on  implicitly. 

From  the  few  pages  of  this  Journal  alone — to  say  nothing  of 
other  authorities — it  is  to  be  gathered,  that  the  society  of  Phila- 
delphia, in  that  day,  was  extensive,  wealthy,  educated,  and  cour- 
teous, and  that  it  presented  the  characteristics  of  one  founded  on 
professional  pursuits,  and  upon  trade  in  its  most  elevated  condi- 
tion. There  hangs  about  it  an  air  of  stateliness,  which,  as  we  de~ 
scend  the  social  grades,  mellows  into  ease  and  comfort.  Among 
the  higher  classes,  there  was  a  ceremoniousness  which  regulated 
rather  than  interfered  with  sociability,  and  the  style  of  conversa- 
tion among  the  young — for  Black  was  then  a  young  man  and 
naturally  sought  the  companionship  of  youth — was  carried  to  a 
degree  of  sentimentality  which,  in  our  days,  we  should  consider 
stilted.  When  young  ladies  were  present,  the  discourse  invariably 
turned  on  love  and  the  emotions,  and  these  subjects  were  discussed 
in  a  style  that  would  have  done  honor  to  Miss  Lydia  Languish, 

best  school  for  learning  throughout  America." — Burnaby's  "Travels,"  85; 
"  Works  of  Franklin,"  vi,  194.  "They  have  societies,  the  Pliilosophical  So' 
ciety  particularly,  which  excites  a  scientific  emulation,  and  propagates  thei^ 
fame." — John  Adams,  "  Familiar  Letters,"  No.  125. 

*  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  etc.  (Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.),  vols,  i  and  2. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  PHILADELPHIA.  159 

and  with  a  pertinacity  and  a  particularity  which  would  have 
stirred  the  soul  of  Clarissa  Harlowe.  It  was,  to  tell  the  truth, 
somewhat  lackadaisical,  and  was  varied,  if  monotony  is  ever 
varied,  by  excursions  into  the  domain  of  criticism,  where  the 
beauties  of  Addison,  Prior,  Otway,  Congreve,  or  Dryden,  were  set 
off  against  the  polished  satires  of  the  heartless  Mr.  Pope.  Its 
fault  was,  that  it  was  too  sentimental ;  it  smacked  too  much  of  the 
fine  writing  of  the  age,  and  it  can  be  easily  imagined  that,  to  one 
listening  to  it  with  his  eyes  shut,  it  would  sound  as  if  some  one 
were  reading  a  poor  imitation  of  the  Tatler  and  Guardian^  or,  at 
best,  of  the  Spectator.  The  taste  of  the  day  mercilessly  exacted 
that  young  ladies  should  grow  lachrymose  over  the  wrongs  of  the 
distressed  heroines — for  distressed  they  always  were — and  that 
their  beaux  should  wax  indignant  at  the  ruffianly  Lovelaces  who 
scandalized  innocence  on  every  page  of  fiction.* 

From  many  sources  we  know  the  habits  and  manners  of  colo- 
nial society  in  Philadelphia,  and  we  know  that  it  was  characterized 
by  a  remarkable  degree  of  elegance  and  display,  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that,  at  that  time,  it  was  the  growth  of  but  three  genera- 
tions. The  accumulation  of  wealth  had  been  exceedingly  rapid, 
and  doubtless  would  have  brought  with  it  the  evil  that  almost  in- 
variably attends  the  hasty  acquisition  of  riches,  had  it  not,  after 
all,  been  a  natural  and  healthy  result  of  circumstances,  and  had 
not  its  use  been  regulated  by  a  moderation  and  sobriety  admirable 
to  look  back  upon.  That  society  was  pure,  every  record  we  have 
of  it  clearly  testifies.  It  was  moral,  religious,  and,  on  the  whole, 
cultivated. 

Pennsylvania  and  its  capital  were,  in  many  respects,  far  in  ad- 
vance of  the  rest  of  colonial  organizations.  In  agriculture,  it 
reached   the  highest  point  then   attained  in  America'';  in  com- 

^  "  The  women  are  exceedingly  handsome  and  polite  ;  they  are  naturally 
sprightly  and  fond  of  pleasure  ;  *  *  *  without  flattery,  many  of  them 
would  not  make  bad  figures  even  in  the  first  assemblies  in  Europe." — Bumaby's 
••Travels,"  86,  87. 

'^  Philadelphia  was  ''well  lighted  at  night  and  patrolled." — Bumaby's  "  Trav» 
els,"  76. 

"  For  nearly  four  miles  the  road  is  as  straight  as  the  streets  of  Philadelphia. 
On  each  side  are  beautiful  rows  of  trees,  buttonwoods,  oaks,  walnuts,  cherries, 
and  willows,  especially  down  toward  the  banks  of  the  river.  The  meadows, 
pastures,  and  grass-plots  are  as  green  as  leeks.  There  are  many  fruit-trees  and 
fine  orchards  set  with  the  nicest  regularity.  But  the  fields  of  grain,  the  rye  and 
wheat,  exceed  all  description.     These  fields  are  all  sown  in  ridges,  and  the  fur- 


l60  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

merce,  it  was  unquestionably  pre-eminent ;  the  commonwealth  dis- 
played in  its  government  the  principle  of  representation  in  greater 
activity  than  was  seen  anywhere  else  ;  and,  from  the  very  first  day 
of  its  existence,  freedom  of  conscience,  the  mother  of  every  kind 
and  degree  of  liberty,  was  established  as  the  foundation  on  which 
the  whole  structure  rested  ;  moreover,  her  geographical  position, 
between  the  North  and  South  (there  was  then  no  West  known  to 
American  civilization),  gave  her  natural  advantages  which  her  sis- 
ters on  either  hand  could  not  possess.  Philadelphia  thus  became 
metropolitan  :  it  was  the  centre,  to  which  every  impulse,  intel- 
lectual or  physical,  made  its  way,  and  from  which  it  again  went 
forth.  Here  were  not  only  the  libraries,  but  the  printing  presses 
which  the  Bradfords  and  Franklin  made  famous,  and  as  most  of 
the  colonies  were  lamentably  deficient  in  this  respect,  and  some 
altogether  destitute,  the  printers  of  this  city  naturally  monopolized 
that  industry,  so  far  as  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies  were 
concerned.  It  is  evidence  at  once  of  no  little  intellectual  activity, 
and  of  considerable  industrial  energy,  that  of  works  printed  be- 
fore the  Revolution,  in  Philadelphia,  there  are  in  the  City  Library 
alone  four  hundred  and  fifty-nine  books  and  pamphlets.' 

Every  where  in  America  there  was  little  or  no  poverty,  and  in 
Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity  there  was  less  even  than  the  density  of 

row  between  each  couple  of  ridges  is  as  plainly  to  be  seen  as  if  a  swath  had 
been  mown  along.  Yet  it  is  no  wider  than  a  ploughshare,  and  it  is  as  straight 
as  an  arrow.  It  looks  as  if  the  sower  had  gone  along  the  ifurrow  with  his  spec- 
tacles, to  pick  up  every  grain  that  should  accidentally  fall  into  it.  The  corn  is 
just  coming  out  of  the  ground.  The  furrows  struck  out  for  the  hills  to  be 
planted  in  are  each  way  as  straight  as  mathematical  right  lines  ;  and  the  squares 
Isetween  every  four  hills  as  exact  as  they  could  be  done  by  plumb  and  line,  or 
scale  and  compass.  I  am  ashamed  of  our  farmers.  They  are  a  lazy,  ignorant 
set,  in  husbandry  I  mean  ;  for  they  know  infinitely  more  of  every  thing  else  than 
these." — "  Familiar  Letters  "  of  John  Adams,  No.  185  (Phila.,  May,  1777). 

^Thomas  I.  Wharton,  "  Prov.  Lit.  of  Pa.,"  "Mem.  Hist.  Socy.  of  Pa.,"  i, 
156.  The  taste  for  reading  was  general.  "You  would  be  astonished,"  says 
Duche,  in  his  "Observations,"  etc.,  p.  ii,  quoted  in  Wharton's  "Essay," 
"  at  the  general  taste  for  books  which  prevails  among  all  orders  and  ranks  of 
people  in  this  city.  The  Librarian  (of  the  City  Library)  assured  me,  that  for 
one  person  of  distinction  and  fortune,  there  were  twenty  tradesmen  that  fre- 
quented this  library."  Again,  id.^  p.  30,  "  Literary  accomplishments  here  meet 
with  deserved  applause.  Such  is  the  prevailing  taste  for  books  of  every  kind, 
that  almost  every  man  is  a  reader  ;  and  by  pronouncing  sentences  right  or 
wrong,  upon  the  various  publications  that  come  in  his  way,  puts  himself  upon 
a  level,  in  point  of  knowledge,  with  these  several  authors."  *  *  *  "Many 
excellent  productions  in  the  literary  way  have  been  published  here.  Thai 
spint  of  freedom,  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  has  given  birth  even  to  ora- 
tors and  poets,  many  of  whose  performances  I  have  heard  and  read  with  the 
highest  satisfaction." — Id.,  150. 


DIVERSITY  OF  NATIONALITY,  l6l 

population  would  lead  one  to  reasonably  expect.  The  mechanics, 
for  whom  it  was  then  as  noted  as  it  is  now,  and  the  tradesmen, 
were,  as  a  class,  well  off,  and  many  were  wealthy.  Hospitals  and 
benevolent  institutions  of  one  kind  or  another  were  established, 
encouragement  was  given  liberally  and  practically  to  apprentices, 
the  schools  enjoyed  a  reputation  that  extended  throughout  the 
land,  and,  in  short,  during  her  colonial  existence,  Philadelphia  dis- 
played a  lofty  condition  of  civilization.  Education  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  city.  At  Bethlehem  the  Moravians  were  annually 
sending  forth  educated  youth  from  the  same  school  they  are  con- 
ducting to-day  ;  and  at  Ephrata,  in  Lancaster  County,  a  community 
of  Dunkers  relieved  the  tedium  of  a  cloistered  life  by  composing 
and  publishing  works  on  religion  and  morality.*  Lindley  Murray, 
who  was  a  native  of  that  county,  was  at  that  time,  too,  engaged  in 
those  studies  which  eventually  produced  his  works  on  the  English 
language. 

Pennsylvania,  during  her  colonial  existence,  owed  much  to  the 
German  element  of  her  population.  The  Mennonites,  from  the 
Palatinate,  settled  Germantown,  and  a  general  immigration  from 
other  parts  of  Germany  diffused  itself  through  the  rich  valley 
which  extends  on  the  south  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  from  the 
Delaware  to  the  Susquehanna,  and  thence,  southwardly  through 
the  land.  Their  knowledge  of  agriculture,  their  sagacity,  and 
their  patient  toil  and  love  of  labor,  made  this  valley  a  garden. 
For  some  time,  indeed,  the  influx  of  these  immigrants  was  so 
great,  that  a  wide- spread  alarm  possessed  the  English-speaking 
colonists  lest  the  Germans  might  get  the  ascendancy  in  govern- 
ment as  well  as  in  numbers,  and  thus  transform  Pennsylvania 
from  an  English  into  a  German  colony."  But  this  fear  gradually 
disappeared  before  the  natural  increase  and  the  immigration  of 
the  former,  and  vanished  entirely  on  the  arrival  of  great  numbers 
of  Irish,  Welch,  Scotch,  and  Scotch-Irish.  These  last,  for  the 
most  part,  went  directly  to  the  frontier,  which  was  not  long  in 
crossing  the  Susquehanna  and  advancing  beyond  the  rich  valleys 
of  the  interior.     There  the  struggles  of  border  life  at  once  de- 

'See  Israel  Acrelius'  visits  to  Bethlehem  and  Ephrata  in  "  Mems.  Hist.  Socy. 
Pa.,"  and  Watson's  "  Annals  "  ;  also  John  Adams,  "  Fam.  Letters,"  No.  155. 

'  See,  sparsim,  Logan's  Letters  in  Penn  and  Logan  Corresp.  As  late  as 
1755,  Sam'l  Wharton  expresses  his  fears  in  this  respect.  MS.  198-202  ;  Wat- 
son's "Annals,"  256,  257. 


1 62  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

veloped  the  hardy  population  heretofore  described.  To  the 
north  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  in  the  valley  of  the  upper  Susque- 
hanna, and  in  what  is  the  northeastern  part  of  the  territory,  an 
immigration  from  New  England,  chiefly  from  Connecticut,  had 
set  in,  which,  claiming  the  soil  under  the  Connecticut  charter,  led 
to  long  and  sanguinary  broils  with  those  who  attempted  to  head 
them  off,  or  to  expel  them,  under  color  of  the  charter  granted  to 
Penn.  This  conflict  of  tenure  was  suspended  by  the  common 
necessity  which  compelled  the  contestants  to  take  part  in  the 
Revolution,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  return  of  peace  that 
the  strife  was  settled  by  the  decision  of  the  federal  court,  sitting 
at  Trenton,  invalidating  the  Connecticut  title,  or,  to  speak  accu- 
rately, confirming  that  of  Pennsylvania.  Beginning,  then,  at  the 
southeast,  and  advancing  north  and  westwardly,  we  find  that  the 
population  of  Pennsylvania  contained,  first,  Swedes,  next  English, 
then  Germans,  and  lastly  New  Englanders  ;  while  the  whole  front 
of  this  mass,  from  the  west  branch  of  the  Susquehanna  south- 
ward, was  covered  by  one  consisting  of  Irish,  Welch,  Scotch,  and 
Scotch-Irish,  as  the  Protestant  immigrants  from  the  north  of 
Ireland  were  called. 

Thus  Pennsylvania  had  a  greater  diversity  of  nationalities  than 
any  other  colony,  and  offered,  consequently,  a  greater  variety  of 
character.  While  agriculture  drew  to  itself  the  largest  number 
of  people,  the  commercial  class,  from  its  greater  concentration 
and  wealth,  exercised  the  weightiest  influence,  and  the  timidity  of 
trade  uniting  itself  with  the  natural  tenacity  of  the  farming  class 
to  ancient  institutions,  rendered  this  colony  to  a  high  degree 
conservative.  As  far  as  the  ancient  institutions  of  the  race  were 
concerned,  the  progressive  party  was  as  conservative  as  any  other. 
It  aimed  principally  at  a  modification  of  manners  and  a  change  of 
the  ruling  element ;  at  a  more  active  development  of  natural  re- 
sources and  greater  facilities  for  commerce.  Its  strongest  ally 
within  the  city  was  the  industrial  classes,  and,  in  the  country,  the 
immigration  that  was  not  Quaker  was  on  its  side.  This  was 
the  class,  which,  once  moved  to  act,  carried  the  colony  into 
rebellion. 

Looking  at  the  whole  of  Pennsylvania  at  once,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  its  spirit  of  liberty  was  a  fierce  one.     The  frontier  population. 


THE   SPIRIT  OF  LIBERTY  STUBBORN,  163 

of  course,  brooked  no  restraint/  but  the  natural  placidity  of  the 
German  farmers  did  not  give  way  to  an  aggressive  character,  and 
the  English  counties  were  under  the  influence  of  the  mercantile 
caution  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  the  deliberation  natural  to  the 
Quakers  and  the  wealthy  class  there  gathered  together.  But  the 
placidity  of  the  Pennsylvania  German  is  not  to  be  taken  for 
indifference  :  his  emotional  character  is  undemonstrative  and 
expends  its  force  in  simple  tenacity.'  The  stubborn,  resisting 
quality  of  the  English  blood  need  hardly  be  mentioned.  It  takes 
much,  yields  little,  and,  when  under  such  personal  control  as 
that  maintained  by  the  Quakers,  is  as  little  ostentatious  as  the 
phlegmatic  temperament  of  the  Germans. 

Thus  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  does  not  assume  in  Pennsylvania 
the  aspect  of  defiance  so  familiar  in  the  Northern  and  Southern 
colonies.  It  is  tempered  by  gravity,  and  is  stubborn  rather  than 
fierce. 

^On  the  4th  July,  1776,  the  settlers  on  Pine  Creek  met  and  resolved  that 
they  were  independent  of  Great  Britain — and  this  without  the  knowledge,  of 
course,  of  what  was  at  that  hour  going  on  in  Philadelphia. — M'Ginnes'  *'  Otzi- 
nachson,"  192. 

'John  Adams  thus  conveys  the  impressions  he  received  of  this  people.  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  he  was  then  a  fugitive  at  York,  where,  with 
Congress,  he  was  constantly  threatened  by  Howe— circumstances  not  calculated 
to  favorably  impress  a  man  impatient  of  the  delay,  then  beinjo  experienced,  in 
resisting  the  enemy,  and  irritated  by  the  patience  he  mistook  for  want  of  spirit. 
Moreover,  his  remarks  are  directed  against  those  who,  removed  from  the  theatre 
of  war,  had  not  yet  been  excited  by  the  spectacle  of  it : — * '  The  people  of  this 
country  are  chiefly  Germans,  who  have  schools  in  their  own  language,  as  well 
as  prayers,  psalms,  and  sermons,  so  that  multitudes  are  born,  grow  up,  and  die 
here  without  ever  learning  the  English.  In  politics  they  are  a  breed  of  mon- 
grels or  neutrals,  and  benumbed  with  a  general  torpor."  "  Fam.  Letts.,"  No. 
223,  Oct.,  1777. 

Burnaby,  whose  judgment  is  entitled  to  great  respect,  says  of  the  Pennsy 
vanians  in  1759-60:  "They  are  great  republicans,  and  have  fallen  into  the 
same  errors  in  their  ideas  of  independency  as  most  of  the  other  colonies  have." 
— •  Travels,"  86. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

New  England's   Five   Advantages   as   enumerated  by  John 
Adams ;  and  herein  of  Education, 

ACCORDING  to  the  order  adopted,  the  remaining  reason  for 
the  spirit  of  liberty  being  fierce  in  ihe  colonies,  given  in  Mr. 
Burke's  analysis,  namely  Education^  is  now  to  be  considered,  and  in 
connection  with  it  the  advantages  mentioned  by  John  Adams*  which 
New  England  possessed  "over  every  colony  in  America,  and,  in- 
deed, of  every  other  part  of  the  world,"  may  be  reviewed  with  profit. 

These  advantages  are  thus  enumerated  : 

"  I.  The  people  are  purer  English  blood  ;  less  mixed  with 
Scotch,  Irish,  Dutch,  French,  Danish,  Swedish,  etc.,  than  any 
other  ;  and  descended  from  Englishmen,  too,  who  left  Europe  in 
purer  times  than  the  present,  and  less  tainted  with  corruption  than 
those  they  left  behind  them. 

"  2.  The  institutions  in  New  England  for  the  support  of  religion, 
morals,  and  decency  exceed  any  other  ;  obliging  every  parish  to 
have  a  minister,  and  every  person  to  go  to  meeting,  etc. 

"3.  The  public  institutions  in  New  England  for  the  education 
of  youth,  supporting  colleges  at  the  public  expense,  and  obliging 
towns  to  maintain  grammar  schools,  are  not  equalled  and  never 
were,  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

"4,  The  division  of  our  territory,  that  is,  our  counties,  into  town- 
ships ;  empowering  towns  to  assemble,  choose  officers,  make  laws, 
mend  roads,  and  twenty  other  things,  gives  every  man  an  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  and  improving  that  education  which  he  received 
at  college  or  at  school,  and  makes  knowledge  and  dexterity  at 
public  business  common. 

'  "Familiar  Letters,"  120,  No.  75. 

164 


NEW  ENGLAND'S   ADVANTAGES.  1 65 

"5,  Our  law  for  the  distribution  of  intestate  estates  occasions  a 
frequent  division  of  landed  property,  and  prevents  monopolies  of 
land. 

"But  in  opposition  to  these  we  have  labored  under  many  disad- 
vantages :  the  exorbitant  prerogative  of  our  Governors,  etc.,  which 
would  have  overborne  our  liberties  if  it  had  not  been  opposed  by 
the  five  preceding  particulars." 

There  can  be  little  question,  that,  had  not  the  inflexibility  of 
these  free  institutions  and  the  stubborness  of  blood  withstood  the 
encroachments  of  the  crown,  liberty  in  these  colonies  would  have 
been  ground  to  dust  under  the  crushing  pressure  of  royal  preroga- 
tive. They  are  therefore  worthy  of  thoughtful  consideration,  and 
shall  be  noticed  in  the  order  enumerated. 

I.  The  first  advantage  set  forth  by  Mr.  Adams  might  not  meet 
the  assent  of  those  theorists  in  ethnology  who  maintain  that  tribal 
mixture  increases  the  vigor  of  race.  But  accepting  as  a  fact  the 
implication  deducible  from  his  proposition,  that  the  purer  the 
blood  the  better  the  race,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  this  advantage 
IS  not  one  peculiar  to  New  England.  The  governing  class  in  the 
Southern  colonies,  by  whom  alone  resistance  was  made,  was  equal- 
ly pure  in  blood  with  the  people  of  New  England,  and  we  have 
seen  that  in  Pennsylvania,  where  fully  as  high  a  pitch  of  civiliza- 
tion was  reached,  this  eminence  was  greatly  due  to  the  admixture 
of  nationalities.  Nevertheless  the  advantage  possessed  by  New 
England  in  this  respect  is  not  thereby  lessened,  though  it  be  not 
one  in  which  that  region  surpasses  "  every  colony  in  America." 

That  the  times  in  which  the  colonists  left  England  were  purer 
than  those  in  which  the  new-born  states  assumed  their  manhood, 
and  that  those  who  came  over  were  less  tainted  with  corruption 
than  those  that  were  left  behind,  are  facts  which  cannot  be  em- 
phatically asserted,  because  they  cannot  be  definitely  ascertained. 
Granting,  however,  that  such  v.^ere  the  cases,  and  that  thence  de- 
scended an  untainted  race,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  Maryland,  and  the  later  immigration  of  Vir- 
ginia can  all  claim  with  justice  the  same  hereditary  purity.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  to  this  purity  of  race  and  character  the 
colonists  owed  much  of  the  resolution  and  endurance  which  dis- 
tinguished them,  and  that  in  these  noble  qualities  the  New  Eng- 
land people  were  not  outshone  by  their  fellows. 


l66  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

2.  That  the  institutions  of  New  England  exceeded  those  of 
the  other  colonies  in  the  support  they  gave  to  religion,  morals, 
and  decency,  is  an  assertion  likewise  open  to  dissent ;  for,  where 
was  there  a  more  religious  people  than  those  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland,  a  more  moral  people  than  that  of  the  South,  and  in 
what  respect  did  New  England  excel  in  that  general  decency 
which  everywhere  alike  pervaded  the  simple  manners  of  the  col- 
onists ?  The  reasons  given  for  such  superiority,  namely,  the  im- 
position of  clergy  upon  communities,  and  Sunday  laws,  have  de- 
monstrated their  insufficiency  by  ceasing  to  exist  in  the  New 
England  to  which  they  are  asserted  to  give  such  great  advan- 
tages ;  nor  could  their  existence  even  be  excused,  unless  it  be 
granted  that  there  can  be  no  public  worship  without  an  Establish- 
ment, no  religion  without  intolerance,  nor  any  morality  and  de- 
cency without  both.  But  among  free  peoples,  though  religion 
sustains  morality  and  decency  with  the  sympathy  of  a  kindred 
spirit,  it  is  the  arm  of  the  municipal  law  that  enforces  their  ob- 
servance, and  though  the  State  regards  religion  as  one  of  the  in- 
stitutions of  society  it  is  bound  to  protect,  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  such  institution  has  actual  control  of  the  manners  and  con- 
science of  the  community  for  weal  or  woe.  It  certainly  did  not 
in  New  York  and  Virginia  where  Establishment  was  the  law  of 
the  land,  nor  was  its  rule  effective  or  perpetual  in  the  days  of  the 
Massachusetts  oligarchy.  It  is  difficult,  then,  to  see  the  extraor- 
dinary advantages  conferred  by  such  relics  of  intolerance  as  the 
forced  imposition  of  clergy  and  compulsory  attendance  upon 
public  worship.  As  parts  of  political  constitution  the  enlightened 
now  regard  them  as  so  many  weaknesses  of  the  body  politic,  and 
even  as  so  many  hindrances  to  the  development  of  purity  in 
morals  and  religion,  and  the  observer  is,  therefore,  apt  to  conclude 
that  New  England  was  religious,  moral,  and  decent,  not  on  account 
of  these  irrational  institutions,  but  in  spite  of  them.' 

'  How  tenaciously  Massachusetts  clung  to  these  twin  relics  of  intolerance  maybe 
seen  from  the  following  account  of  an  interview  which  took  place  as  late  as  1774. 

*****  Some  gentlemen  in  Philadelphia  *  *  *  wished  to  communi- 
cate to  us  a  little  business,  and  wished  we  would  meet  them  at  six  in  the  even- 
ing at  Carpenters*  Hall.  *  *  *  We  all  went  at  the  hour,  and  to  my  great 
surprise  found  the  hall  almost  full  of  people,  and  a  great  number  of  Quakers 
seated  at  the  long  table  with  their  broad-brimmed  beavers  on  their  heads.  We 
were  invited  to  seats  among  them,  and  informed  that  they  had  received  com- 
plaints, from  some  Anabaptists  and  some  Friends  in  Massachusetts,  against  cer- 
tain laws  of  that  Province,   restrictive  of  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  some 


SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  167 

3.  But  whatever  doubt  may  hover  over  the  first  two  assertions 
of  this  great  statesman,  none  clouds  the  rest.  Political  science 
affords  no  greater  verities  than  those  contained  in  the  ensuing 
paragraphs,  and  the  school,  the  township,  and  the  equability  of  in- 
testate distribution  did  exert  a  notable  influence  over  New  Eng- 
land character,  and  served  to  render  her  spirit  of  liberty  exceed- 
ingly bold. 

The  establishment  of  the  school  system  of  New  England  was 
aided  by  the  concentration  of  population,  to  which  the  climate, 
the  distribution  of  soil,  the  theocratic  constitution  of  society,  the 

instances  were  mentioned,  in  the  General  Court,  and  in  the  courts  of  justice,  in 
which  Friends  and  Baptists  had  been  grievously  oppressed.     *     *     * 

"  Israel  Pemberton,  a  Quaker  of  large  property  and  more  intrigue,  began  to 
speak,  and  said  that  Congress  were  here  endeavoring  to  lorm  a  union  of  the 
Colonies  ;  but  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way,  and  none  of  more  nitportance 
than  liberty  of  conscience.  The  laws  of  New  Erigland,  and  particularly  of 
Massachusetts^  were  inconsistent  with  it,  for  they  not  only  compelled  men  to  pay 
to  the  building  of  churches  and  support  of  ministers,  but  to  go  to  some  known 
religious  assembly  on  first  days,  etc.  ;  and  that  he  and  his  friends  were  desirous 
of  engaging  us  to  assure  them  that  our  State  would  repeal  all  those  laws,  and 
place  things  as  they  were  in  Pennsylvania. 

"  A  suspicion  instantly  arose  in  my  mind,  which  I  have  ever  believed  to  have 
been  well  founded,  that  this  artful  Jesuit,  for  I  had  been  before  apprized  of  his 
character,  was  endeavoring  to  avail  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  break  up  the 
Congress,  or  at  least  to  withdraw  the  Quakers  and  the  governing  part  of  Penn- 
sylvania from  us  ;  for,  at  that  time,  by  means  of  a  most  unequal  representation, 
the  Quakers  had  a  majority  in  their  House  of  Assembly,  and,  by  consequence, 
the  whole  power  of  the  State  in  their  hands.  I  arose,  and  spoke  in  answer  to 
him.  The  substance  of  what  I  said  was,  that  we  had  no  authority  to  bind  our 
constituents  to  any  such  proposals  ;  that  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  were  the 
most  mild  and  equitable  establishment  of  religion  that  was  known  in  the  world, 
if  indeed  they  could  be  called  an  establishment ;  that  it  would  be  in  vain  for  us 
to  enter  into  any  conferences  on  such  a  subject,  for  we  knew  beforehand  our 
constituents  would  disavow  all  we  could  do  or  say  for  the  satisfaction  of  those 
who  invited  us  to  this  meeting.  That  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  as 
religious  and  conscientious  as  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  ;  that  their  consciences 
dictated  to  them  that  it  was  their  duty  to  support  those  laws,  and  therefore  the 
very  liberty  of  conscience,  which  Mr.  Pemljerton  invoked,  would  demand  in- 
dulgence for  the  tender  consciences  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  and  allow 
them  to  preserve  their  laws  ;  that  it  might  be  depended  on,  this  was  a  point 
that  could  not  be  carried  ;  that  I  would  not  deceive  them  by  insinuating  the 
faintest  hope,  for  I  knew  they  ?night  as  well  turn  the  heavenly  bodies  out  of  their 
annual  and  diurnal  courses,  as  the  people  of  Massachusetts  at  the  present  day 
from  their  meeting-house  and  Sunday  laws.  Pemberton  made  no  reply  but  this  : 
'  Oh  !  sir,  pray  don't  urge  hberty  of  conscience  in  favor  of  such  laws  ! '  If  I 
had  known  the  particular  complaints  which  were  to  be  alleged,  and  if  Pember- 
ton had  not  broken  irregularly  into  the  midst  of  things,  it  might  have  been 
better,  perhaps,  to  have  postponed  this  declaration." — "  Life  and  Works  of 
John  Adams,"  Diary,  ii,  398,  399. 

Better !  It  would  have  been  best  had  this  declaration  never  offended  the 
ear  of  fi-eedom  of  conscience  !  John  Adams  was  ahead  of  his  times  in  every 
thing  excepi  toleration  ;  in  that  respect  Israel  Pemberton  was  in  advance  of 
Adams. 


l68  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

disposition  of  character,  and  the  habits  of  class  all  contributed. 
This  concentration  made  practicable  what  the  dispersion  of 
Southern  society  rendered  impracticable,  and  in  every  Northern 
neighborhood  a  number  of  children  sufficient  to  warrant  the  exist- 
ence of  a  school  was  always  at  hand,  while  in  Southern  localities 
the  scholars  were  scattered  over  territory  too  great  to  permit  their 
daily  assemblage.  As  we  go  far  South,  and  the  population  be- 
comes more  and  more  scanty,  this  obstacle  to  the  formation  of 
common  schools  becomes  greater  and  greater.  That  a  disposition 
favorable  to  education  existed  in  the  South,  as  well  as  in  the 
North,  is  shown  by  the  fact,  that  where  the  density  of  population 
permitted  the  support  of  schools  they  appeared  ;  where  it  was  in- 
sufficient they  did  not  appear.  Fortunately,  the  absence  of  public 
schools  does  not  always  imply  want  of  education,  inasmuch  as 
from  the  constitution  of  modern  civilization,  a  dispersed  society  is 
generally  accompanied  with  wealth  sufficient  to  make  up  the  de- 
ficiencies incident  to  isolation.  In  fact,  in  the  Southern  colonies, 
education  made  its  way  by  adopting  a  mode  of  dissemination  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  Northern,  but  nevertheless  efficacious. 
Here  society  gathered  to  receive  it,^  but  there  it  had  to  seek 
society,  and  its  agents  were  as  dispersed  as  the  families.  Instead 
of  public  there  was  home  instruction,  and  the  children  were 
taught  by  tutors  who  were  members  of  the  household.  Often 
these  were  the  neighboring  parsons,  curates,  or  students  of  the- 
ology, or,  where  such  could  not  be  had,  young  graduates  of  the 
universities  lately  come  out  from  England.  Still,  though  educa- 
tion in  the  South  is  thus  shown  to  have  been  steadily  cared  for,  it 
was  nevertheless  imperfect.  Every  form  of  solitary  instruction  is 
defective,  and  to  this  the  instruction  on  the  plantations  was  no 
exception  ;  for  it  was  confined  to  one  class  of  society  only,  and, 
so  great  was  the  dispersion,  it  could  not  reach  all  the  children 
even  in  that  class.     Education,  therefore,  was  not  so  much  diffused 

*  So  early  was  this  tendency  to  concentration,  that,  in  1636,  a  law  was  enacted 
in  Massachusetts  which  prohibited  the  erection  of  dwelling-houses  in  any  new 
township,  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  meeting-house  than  half  a  mile. 
Lands  were  sold  or  granted  only  to  companies  associated  together  for  the  pur- 
poses of  settlement.  This  regulation  was  based  on  religious  more  than  on 
social  or  political  motives,  and  it  was  a  provision  by  which  two  birds  were 
killed  with  one  stone  : — for,  none  but  church  members  being  allowed  to  vote  in 
township  affairs,  the  theocratic  oligarchy  was  strengthened  the  more  the  land 
was  peopled. — Hildreth,  i,  chap.  ix. 


ADVANTAGES  OF  NORTHERN  SYSTEM.  169 

in  the  South  as  in  the  North.  Again,  the  one  teacher  had  to 
instruct  in  all  branches,  and  as  the  men  are  rare  who  are  good  at 
teaching  every  thing,  learning  was  infected  with  the  inequality  of 
excellence  which  naturally  results  from  that  of  capacity  ;  and, 
lastly,  from  the  paucity  of  pupils  competition  was  rare,  and  thus  a 
highly  effective  force  was  almost  wanting.  These  defects,  lack 
of  diffusion,  inequality  of  excellence,  and  feebleness  of  competi- 
tion, placed  the  education  of  the  South  in  an  unfavorable  contrast 
with  that  of  the  North.  Good  in  one  thing,  it  was  deficient  in 
another,  and  it  thus  betrayed  irregularity  and  shortcoming.  The 
want  of  competition  was,  next  to  the  actual  paucity  of  numbers 
(and  the  blacks  are  out  of  the  question),  in  a  great  measure  owing 
to  the  absence  of  the  middle  class,  which  ordinarily  fills  the 
benches  of  Northern  school-rooms,  where  to  this  competition  is 
chiefly  due  the  excellence  of  the  schools  embraced  in  the  com- 
munal system.  Then,  too,  the  social  concentration  which  the 
South  lacked,  was  able,  in  the  North,  to  supply  several  teachers  to 
one  school,  and  as  each  of  these  instructed  in  the  subject  for 
which  he  was  best  fitted  by  taste  and  acquirements,  the  pupils 
thus  enjoyed  the  best  instruction  in  all  branches  that  the  locality 
afforded,  and  their  knowledge  became  more  completely  rounded 
and  filled  out  than  that  of  the  Southern  youth.  In  a  word,  as  the 
education  of  a  community  is  a  communal  affair,  the  education  of 
the  North  enjoyed  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  co- 
operation and  concentration  of  all  the  social  forces  that  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject.  That  there  was  no  positive 
want  of  education  among  the  wealthy  class  in  the  South,  is  shown 
by  the  early  foundation  of  William  and  Mary  College,  which 
could  not  have  come  into  existence,  had  not  the  need  of  higher 
instruction  than  what  the  plantation  could  give,  been  felt  by  a 
class  who  stood  ready  to  receive  it. 

?»ut  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that,  during  our  colonial  existence, 
the  love  of  learning  was  more  general  in  the  North  than  in  the 
South.  We  have  seen  the  pre-eminence  of  the  schools  in  Penn- 
sylvania, where  the  Quakers  provided  education  as  soon  as  they 
were  able  to  furnish  shelter  for  the  scholars,  and  where  they  set  up 
printing-presses  to  diffuse  knowledge,  while  the  forest  trees  were 
still  standing  at  their  doors.^     The  New  Englanders  did  the  same 

*  "  It  is  believed  that  no  one  of  the  States  of  this  Union  can  exhibit  so  early,  so 
continued,  and  so  successful  a  cultivation  of  letters  as  Pennsylvania.     Hardly 


I/O  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

for  their  children,  with  the  exception  of  the  printing-press,  for 
which  they  long  manifested  an  aversion.'  One  of  their  first  en- 
actments was,  "  that  every  township,  after  the  Lord  hath  increased 
them  to  the  number  of  fifty  householders,  shall  appoint  one  to 
teach  all  children  to  write  and  read  ;  and  where  any  town  shall 
increase  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up 
a  grammar  school  ;  the  masters  thereof  being  able  to  instruct 
youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  university."  "  This  was 
done,  "  to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  graves 
of  our  forefathers,"  and  for  the  purpose  of  baffling  "  that  old 
deluder  Sathan,"  who  would  "keep  men  from  the  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures.""  It  would  hardly  have  been  accomplished  had 
there  not  been  a  thirst  for  knowledge  common  to  the  people,  and 
this  was  the  beginning  of  that  communal  system  of  education, 
which,  in  the  last  century,  caused  learning  to  be  more  generally 
diffused  throughout  New  England  than  it  was  anywhere  else. 
Learning,  with  the  New  Englanders,  was  not  a  distinction,  but 
ignorance  was  a  badge  of  unpardonable  inferiority — it  was  the 
mark  of  the  Beast.* 

Nor  was  this  avidity  for  knowledge  confined  to  the  rudiments 
of  education,  or  to  that  which  simply  facilitates  the  business  of 
daily  life.  One  might  naturally  suppose  that  those  whose  business 
was  to  subdue  nature,  people  solitudes,  and  found  States,  would  be 
so  occupied  as  to  have  time  for  nothing  but  the  performance  of 
these  duties,  and  the  cultivation  of  those  powers  which  were  es- 
sential to  the  work  in  hand.  But  to  the  undying  honor  of  these 
people,  it  must  be  said,  that  they  sought  the  object  of  their  cult- 
ure not  so  much  in  their  newly  broken  fields  as  in  themselves. 

had  the  emigrants  sheltered  themselves  in  their  huts, — uic  forest  trees  were  still 
standing  at  tlieir  doors, — when  they  established  schools  and  a  printing-press,  to 
teach  and  to  be  enlightened  ;  literally  inter  silvas  querere  verum.  Within  four 
years  from  the  time  that  our  ancestors  landed  in  the  wilderness,  a  printing-press 
was  at  work  in  Philadelphia  *  *  *  and  only  a  few  months  after  the  arrival 
of  William  Penn,  public  education  was  attainable  at  a  small  expense." — Whar- 
ton's "Prov.  Lit.  of  Pa.,"  "  Mems.  Hist.  Socy.  of  Pa.,"  i,  loo,  no. 

*"  In  the  leading  colony  of  New  England  legal  restraints  upon  printing  were 
not  entirely  removed  until  about  twenty-one  years  before  the  Declaration  of 
Independence." — Tyler's  "Hist,  of  Am.  Lit.,"  i,  II2,  I13  ;  Thomas'  "Hist, 
of  Print,  in  America,"  i,  58,  59,  etc. 

""  "  Col.  Laws,"  74,  186,  A.  D.  1647  ;  t'ildreth,  "Hist.  U.  S.,"  i.  370,  371 ; 
Bancroft,  id,^  chap.  x. 

"Hildreth,  id.,  370,  371. 

*  De  Tocqueville,  torn. ,  i,  chap.  xvii. 


YALE  AND  HARVARD.  I7I 

They  were  content  with  no  provision  for  the  future  that  did  not 
contemplate  the  highest  possible  cultivation  of  their  minds.  The 
significance  of  this  last  step  in  the  plan  of  public  education  is  not 
lessened  by  the  fact  that  the  colleges  were  the  work  of  individual 
instead  of  the  common  energy.  Such  has  been  the  history  of  the 
early  universities  the  world  over,  and  it  is  so  universal  that  it  must 
be  accepted  as  a  step  of  the  natural  development  of  culture.  The 
individual  founds  what  the  State  is  often  glad  to  assist,  and  what 
the  community  always  sustains.  So  it  was  in  the  New  England 
colonies.  In  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  John  Harvard,  who, 
unfortunately,  did  not  live  to  see  the  fulness  of  his  work,  founded 
the  institution,  to  which  his  grateful  fellow-laborers  in  the  field 
of  education  gave  his  name, — an  institution  which,  taking  the 
lead,  has  not  had  its  supremacy  in  learning  disputed  from  that 
day  to  this,  save  by  its  splendid  rival,  to  whom  the  learned  of 
Connecticut,  inspired  by  the  same  generous  emotion  as  that  which 
stirred  the  bosoms  of  those  of  Massachusetts,  gave  the  name  of 
Yale.  These  two  great  universities  have  always  borne  toward 
each  other  somewhat  the  same  relation  as  that  existing  from  time 
immemorial  between  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  in  England,  or, 
rather  between  those  of  England  and  those  of  Germany.  That 
has  been  pre-eminent  in  elegance  of  culture  ;  the  flame  of  this 
has  steadily  shed  a  light  which  has  illuminated  the  path  trodden 
by  six  generations  of  seekers  after  useful  and  solid  learning. 
They  have  not  sought  it  in  vain,  and  perhaps  no  institution  in 
the  world  has,  in  the  same  duration  of  time,  and  from  the 
same  number  of  students,  given  to  society  so  many  useful  citi- 
zens, and,  certainly,  none  in  America  has  exerted  so  great  an  in- 
fluence on  the  fortunes  of  the  country  as  Yale.  The  effect  of 
both  these  universities  on  the  character  and  manners  of  the 
Americans  is  incalculable.  Harvard  has  probably  exerted  its 
greatest  influence  on  literature  ;  Yale  on  public  affairs,  particularly 
law,  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment. Before  the  year  1765,  seven  colleges  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  British  colonies  :  William  and  Mary  in  Virginia  ; 
Philadelphia,  now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  ;  the  college  of 
New  Jersey,  now  Princeton  College  ;  King's  in  New  York,  now 
Columbia  ;  Yale,  at  New  Haven ;  the  University  of  .  Rhode 
Island,  now  Brown  University  ;  and  Harvard  University,  in  Cam- 


172  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

bridge,  Massachusetts.  Of  these,  all  but  one  were  north  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line.  South  of  Virginia  the  small  and  greatly  dis- 
persed population  scarcely  warranted  the  existence  of  such  insti- 
tutions. It  was  easier  and  better  to  send  the  few  aspirants  for  the 
highest  grade  of  education  to  the  North  or  to  Europe. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  prove  how  great  the  effect  of  learning 
must  have  been  on  those  already  possessed  with  the  spirit  of  liberty. 
Learning  of  itself  does  not  produce  freedom,  as  we  see  from  the 
examples  of  those  people  who,  though  very  learned,  are  yet  not  free. 
Freedom  is  the  result  of  race  instinct,  stimulated  by  circumstances, 
and  mere  culture  of  manners  does  little  to  aid  it,  while,  by  divert- 
ing vigilance,  it  may  prove  to  be  the  means  of  positive  injury.  In 
fact,  the  most  cultivated  people  have  often  been  the  least  free,  and 
the  freest  nations  are,  as  a  rule,  the  least  polite.  Freedom,  though 
favoring  education,  has  not  a  softening  effect  on  manners  ;  exces- 
sive amelioration  of  manners  arouses  its  sense  of  insecurity,  by 
exciting  its  instinctive  jealousy  and  dread  of  enervation.  Mere 
book-learning,  however,  has  no  such  softening  effect  on  manners 
as  to  tend  toward  enervation,  while,  as  knowledge,  it  increases  the 
security  of  freedom.  Therefore,  freedom  favors  learning,  but 
does  not  favor  culture  where  manners  are  more  the  objects  of  its 
attention  than  knowledge.  While  knowledge,  then,  cannot  of 
itself  bring  forth  freedom,  it  may  be  the  helping  ally  to  that  which 
already  exists.  It  gives  those  who  have  it  the  means  of  cultivating 
the  spirit  of  liberty  intelligently  ;  it  assists  them  to  reason  concern- 
ing its  nature,  broadens  the  view  of  it,  shows  them  what  it  is,  en- 
hances its  value  in  their  eyes,  and  a  knowledge  of  how  others  have 
dealt  with  it  makes  it  clear  to  them  how  to  deal  with  it  themselves. 
Above  all,  by  showing  how  it  is  lost,  how  easy  it  is  to  lose  it,  and 
how  dreadful  are  the  consequences  of  its  loss,  knowledge  impresses 
upon  them  the  necessity  of  preserving  their  liberties,  and  stimulates 
the  constant  exercise  of  the  one  sole  means  of  preservation,  vigil- 
ance. Of  course,  the  greater  the  number  so  instructed,  the  greater 
the  number  of  guardians,  and  the  more  secure  is  freedom. 

The  most  marked  effect  upon  the  notions  of  government  in  the 
Northern  colonies,  was  that  by  which  the  common  learning  relaxed 
the  rigid  utilitarianism  that  characterized  its  application,  and  in- 
vested this  practical" art  with  an  air  of  theoretical  speculation. 
Every  thing  on  the  subject  of  government,  the  relations  between 


THE  SCHOOL-SYSTEM  FAVORS  DEMOCRACY,  1 73 

the  ruler  and  the  ruled,  and  the  rights  and  responsibilities  of  the 
subject  and  the  citizen,  was  read  with  avidity  and  discussed  with 
unflagging  interest.  The  debating  societies  teemed  with  such 
subjects,  propounded  in  the  form  of  questions  containing  an 
alternative,  and  the  clergy,  always  ready  to  take  part  in  secular 
affairs,  were  not  slow  to  put  in  their  oar  from  the  pulpit.  The 
consequence  was,  that  when  the  practical  knowledge  of  the  art  of 
government  displayed  by  the  South  was  augmented  by  the  famili- 
arity with  theory  and  principle  which  the  North  held  in  reserve, 
the  statesmen  of  the  old  world  were  completely  dumbfounded  at 
the  spectacle.  They  beheld  statesmen  among  people  whom  they 
had  deceived  themselves  into  believing  were  little  better  than 
barbarians,  and  saw  institutions  where  they  least  expected  to  find 
them,  but  where  Montesquieu  had  already  told  them  their  own 
had  originated,  in  the  woods. 

The  concentration  of  society  enabled  the  New  Englanders  to 
support  a  common-school  system.  That  concentration  was  due, 
as  has  been  said,  to  the  distribution  of  soil,  to  the  climate,  and 
above  all,  to  the  constitution  and  instincts  of  the  class  from  which 
the  population  sprung.  Society  had  but  one  class,  that  class  was 
invested  with  self-government,  and  being  that  which,  in  England, 
represented  the  democratic  element,  was,  under  the  full  play  of 
action  permitted  it  in  America,  entirely  democratic,  and  naturally 
made  so  the  colonies  it  established.  They  may,  in  brief,  be  styled 
the  democratic  colonies.  One  effect,  then,  of  this  common-school 
system,  was  the  powerful  support  it  contributed  to  democratic 
notions.  Where  the  child  goes  to  the  town  school,  is  put  on  a 
perfect  equality  with  his  comrades,  has  to  compete  with  him  for 
reward,  and  has  to  share  the  same  punishment,  and  this  in  a  com- 
munity where  he  cannot  help  seeing  that  all  are  alike,  and  that 
none  stand  higher  than  another,  unless  it  be  the  minister,  and  he 
only  one  day  out  of  seven ;  when,  beside  this,  he  is  positively  in- 
structed, that  all  men  are  equal  before  God,  it  naturally  results, 
that  he  grows  up  with  the  conviction^  fixed  in  his  mind,  that  all 
are  really  equal,  socially  as  well  as  politically,  even  though  there  be 
lords  across  the  water.  The  condition  of  society  being  democratic, 
the  instruction  such  society  gave  was  naturally  in  favor  of  a  de- 
mocracy, which  was  thus  powerfully  supported  by  the  schools.  In 
this  manner,  too,  they  emboldened  the  spirit  of  liberty  ;  for,  in  a 


174  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

democracy,  the  existence  of  liberty  is  attributed  to  that  democracy, 
and  whatever  supports  that  consequently  invigorates  freedom. 

4.  But  the  education  which  most  affected  the  spirit  of  liberty 
in  New  England  was  not  that  of  the  schools,  but  of  experience. 
The  art  of  government  is  essentially  a  practical  one,  and,  though 
it  has  its  theories,  it  acts  only  upon  solid  ground.  The  tendency 
to  abstractions,  so  characteristic  of  the  New  England  mind,  was, 
as  it  is  still,  powerfully  counteracted  by  an  institution  which  is  to 
be  found  in  its  highest  form  of  development  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  That  institution  was  the  township,  which  was  to  the 
society  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  what  the  family  was  in 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas,  namely,  the  unit  of  social 
organization.  There  local  self-government  found  its  natural  habi- 
tation, and  one  that  was  all  its  own  ;  thence  it  set  forth,  and  thither 
it  returned. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  New  England  colonization,  the 
township  appears  as  the  most  prominent  feature  of  political  organ- 
ization, and  so  close  does  it  come  to  the  hearth  that  it  may  almost 
be  called  a  division  of  society,  using  the  term  "society"  in  its 
limited  sense  of  neighborly  association.  It  is  the  smallest  terri- 
torial, autonomic  division  of  the  commonwealth,  and  may  be  de- 
scribed, in  a  word,  as  a  neighborhood.  Having  its  limits  defined 
by  law,  being  in  jurisdiction  set  off  separate  and  apart  from  the 
rest  of  the  community,  and  invested  with  self-government,  it  is  an 
autonomy,  and,  as  it  comes  nearest  home  to  the  citizen,  is  con- 
stantly before  his  eyes,  and  is,  moreover,  that  which  he  himself 
governs  ;  it  has  a  reality  of  existence  which  nothing  but  what 
directly  affects  the  citizen's  interests  can  give,  and  is  the  most  im- 
portant factor  by  far  of  the  political  distribution  of  social  forces. 
It  embodies  two  things  which  constitute  the  very  soul  of  a  free 
community — independence  and  individual  authority.  The  admin- 
istration of  the  township  is  perfectly  independent  of  that  of  the 
State  ;  its  authority  within  its  limits  is  as  absolute,  and  as  a  form 
of  social  organization  it  ranks  higher ;  for  it  possesses  to  a  greater 
degree  the  elements  of  vitality,  its  constitution  is  as  varied  and 
more  complete,  it  reaches  more  interests,  it  can  use  the  whole 
force  of  the  State  to  compel  the  execution  of  its  lawful  mandates, 
and  when  the  source  of  life  is  destroyed,  so  great  is  its  vitality, 
that,  though  the  State  lie  in  ruins,  the  township  will  yet  survive  in 


THE     TOWNSHIP.  1/5 

full  force  and  vigor.  It  is  the  germ  which  contains  the  whole  of 
social  life,  and  from  which  grow  the  other  forms  of  political  devel- 
opment. The  State  is  not  the  mother  of  the  townships,  but  it  is 
the  townships  or  aggregations  of  neighborhoods  which  bring  forth 
States.'  The  business  of  the  commonwealth  is  conducted  by 
representatives  of  the  neighborhoods.' 

From  its  smallness  of  size  and  numbers  the  township  can  hardly 
contain  any  great  conflicting  ideas,  classes,  or  interests,  and  the 
work  to  be  performed  is  almost  entirely  of  an  executive  nature  : 
there  is,  therefore,  no  necessity  for  a  purely  representative  gov- 
ernment, which,  moreover,  would  be  too  cumbersome  and  expen- 
sive. The  representative  and  executive  forces  are  consequently 
merged  into  one,  and  the  exertion  of  power  thus  becomes  direct 
and  immediate.  This  power  is  vested  in  a  body  numbering  from 
three  to  a  dozen  persons, who  are  styled  "the  select-men."  These 
are  elected  by  the  town  meeting,  and  bear  a  composite  charac- 
ter, for  they  represent  the  persons  of  the  voters,  and  are  the 
agents  to  execute  their  will.  Their  duties  lie  in  administering 
the  affairs  of  the  township,  and  these  are  prescribed  by  custom, 

^  "  In  this  part  of  the  Union  political  life  had  its  origin  in  the  townships,  and 
it  may  almost  be  said  that  each  of  them  originally  formed  an  independent  na- 
tion. When  the  kings  of  England  afterward  asserted  their  supremacy,  they 
were  content  to  assume  the  central  power  of  the  State.  They  left  the  townships 
where  they  were  before  ;  and  although  they  are  now  subject  to  the  State,  they 
were  not  at  first,  or  were  hardly  so.  They  did  not  receive  their  powers  from 
the  central  authority,  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  gave  up  a  portion  of  their  inde- 
pendence to  the  State.  This  is  an  important  distinction,  and  one  which  the 
reader  must  constantly  recollect.  The  townships  are  generally  subordinate  to 
the  State  only  in  those  interests  which  I  shall  term  social,  as  they  are  common 
to  all  others.  They  are  independent  in  all  that  concerns  themselves  alone  ;  and 
amongst  the  inhabitants  of  New  England,  I  believe  that  not  a  man  is  to  be 
found  who  would  acknowledge  that  the  State  has  any  right  to  interfere  in  their 
town  affairs." — De  Tocqueville,  Bowen's  Transl.,  i,  chap,  v.,  which  see  for  gen- 
eral view  of  Townships.  Cf.  also  Goodwin's  "  Town  Officer,"  the  Statutes  of 
the  New  England  States,  and  the  "  Law  Reports  "  of  the  same.  The  charac- 
ter of  the  township  is  the  least  mutable  of  all  forms  of  polity,  and  was  the  same 
in  colonial  times  as  it  is  to-day.  "  Each  settlement  at  once  assumed  that  town- 
ship authority  which  has  ever  formed  so  marked  a  feature  in  the  political  struct- 
ure of  N.  E.  The  people  assembled  in  town  meeting,  voted  taxes  for  local 
purposes,  and  chose  three,  five,  or  seven  of  the  principal  inhabitants,  at  first 
under  other  names,  but  early  known  as  '  select-men,'  who  had  the  expenditure 
of  this  money,  and  the  executive  management  of  town  affairs.  *  *  *  Each 
town  constituted,  in  fact,  a  little  republic,  almost  complete  in  itself." — Hildreth, 
i,  chap.  vii.  See  on  the  subject  of  the  township  the  valuable  paper  of  Joel  Par- 
ker, entitled  "  The  Origin,  Organization,  and  Influence  of  the  Towns  of  New 
England,"  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  1866-7. 

'The government  of  France  sends  its  agents  to  the  commune ;  m  America  the 
township  sends  its  agents  to  the  government. — De  Tocqueville,  id.,  id. 


17^  CONSriTUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

enjoined  by  law,  or  created  by  unforeseen  emergencies.  The 
select-men  have  also  duties  that  are  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
general  statutes  of  the  commonwealth,  and  which  relate  to  in- 
terests that  are  common  to  all  the  townships  concerned  ;  but 
as  in  these  instances  they  are  constituted  the  agents  of  the  whole 
community  (from  motives  of  public  economy  and  convenience), 
and  are  thus  dehors  the  township,  they  do  not  require  our  consid- 
eration in  such  capacities.  They  enjoy  freedom  of  action,  but  it 
is  universally  limited,  and  they  must  refer  to  the  source  of  power 
for  authority  to  do  any  thing  which,  for  example,  would  change 
the  established  order  of  things,  or  introduce  innovation.  The 
people  vote  as  well  as  pay  the  taxes,  and  the  select-men  undej 
their  direction  expend  them.  The  select-men,  likewise,  call  the 
town  meeting,  and  there  receive  the  instructions  which  they  are 
afterward  to  fulfil.^  They  see  to  the  building  of  schools,  the  em- 
ployment of  teachers,  and,  having  a  general  supervision  of  affairs, 
are  a  little  council  of  governors,  whose  masters  are  veritable  des- 
pots, holding  them  to  strict  accountability,  and  swift  to  mete  out 
the  punishment  of  removal.  Besides  the  select-men  there  are  nu- 
.merous  officers.  There  are  assessors  to  rate  the  taxes,  collectors 
to  receive  them,  a  treasurer  to  keep  the  funds,  and  a  town-clerk 
who  has  the  custody  of  the  records  ;  there  are  constables  to  keep 
the  peace  and  execute  the  laws,  overseers  to  look  after  the  poor, 
committee-men  to  visit  the  schools  and  see  that  the  standard  of 

'  As  in  the  South,  so  in  New  England,  matters  were  well  talked  over  before 
being  broached  publicly,  and  in  the  large  boroughs,  if  not  in  the  rural  districts, 
the  "caucus"  was  early  recognized  as  the  preliminary  step  to  the  town  meeting. 
The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  "  Diary  of  John  Adams;,"  the  entry  being 
"  Boston,  February  "  [1763].  The  ensuing  extract  from  "  Gordon,"  is  taken 
from  a  note  to  the  first  extract  in  the  "  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams."  '*  This 
day  learned  that  the  Caucus  Club  meets,  at  certain  times,  in  the  garret  of  Tom 
Dawes,  the  adjutant  of  the  Boston  regiment.  *  *  *  There  they  choose  a 
Moderator,  who  puts  questions  to  the  vote  regularly  ;  and  select-men,  assessors, 
collectors,  wardens,  fire-wards,  and  representatives,  are  regularly  chosen  before 
they  are  chosen  in  the  tou-n." 

"  More  than  fifty  years  ago,"  (from  1 774)  "  Mr.  Samuel  Adams'  father  and 
twenty  others,  one  or  two  from  the  north  end  of  the  town,  where  all  the  ship 
business  is  carried  on,  used  to  meet,  make  a  caucus,  and  lay  their  plan  for  in- 
troducing certain  persons  into  places  of  trust  and  power.  When  they  had  set- 
tled it,  they  separated,  and  used  each  their  particular  mflucnce  within  his  own  cir- 
cle. He  and  his  friends  would  furnish  themselves  with  ballots,  including  the 
names  of  the  parties  fixed  upon,  which  they  distributed  on  the  days  of  election. 
By  acting  in  concert,  together  with  a  careful  and  extensive  distribution  of  bal- 
lots, they  generally  carried  the  elections  to  their  own  mind.  In  like  manner  it 
was,  that  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  first  became  a  representative  for  Boston." — "  His- 
tory of  the  American  Revolution,"  i,  365,  n. 


DECENTRALIZATION    OF    TOWNSHIP.  I// 

instruction  and  the  attendance  of  scholars  are  maintained,  path- 
masters  to  look  after  the  laying-out,  making,  and  repairing  of 
roads,  firemen,  hog-reeves,  fence-viewers,  timber-measurers,  sealers 
of  weights  and  measures, — in  short,  such  a  little  army,  that,  in  the 
smaller  townships,  it  would  seem  impossible  for  any  voter  to 
escape  conscription  :  and,  in  fact,  hardly  does  it  happen  to  a  re- 
spectable New  Englander,  anywhere,  to  pass  through  life  without 
having  actually  administered  township  government  in  some  of 
these  particulars. 

It  must  be  evident,  that  the  township  affords  the  best  field 
known  to  the  Teutonic  race  for  the  play  of  those  incentives  which 
develop  its  highest  forms  of  citizenship.  In  the  first  place,  the 
administration  of  its  affairs  concerns  the  soil,  of  which  the  citizen 
is  generally  an  owner,  and  to  which  he  is  always  attached,  and  it 
thus  addresses  his  instincts  ;  secondly,  it  directly  concerns  the 
things  which  affect  his  daily  life,  and  it  thus  touches  his  interests ; 
next,  it  gratifies  his  sense  of  self-esteem,  and  thus  arouses  his 
pride  ;  and,  lastly,  it  gives  the  opportunities  for  cultivating  popu- 
larity, and  thus  it  develops  his  ambition.  It  is  not  large  enough, 
however,  to  afford  scope  to  the  inordinate  ambition  of  the  indi- 
vidual, neither  is  the  body  of  townsmen  sufficiently  great  to 
threaten  by  combined  action  the  tranquillity  of  the  common- 
wealth, while  at  the  same  time  the  interests  of  the  townships  being 
similar,  they  would  readily  unite  against  the  encroachment  of  the 
State.  Power  is  divided  at  its  source,  yet  it  can  be  readily  con- 
centrated for  action,  and  thus  the  forces  of  society  are  decentral- 
ized in  their  inception,  and  combined  only  on  what  is  remote. 
The  authority  is  divided,  but  the  power  is  concentrated  in  action. 
There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  despot  in  the  township,  for  there 
is  no  consolidation  of  authority,  no  hierarchy  of  office-holders, 
and  no  personal  transmission  of  power  ;  and  mis-government,  can- 
not be  enduring,  for  it  can  be  terminated  at  the  next  annual  elec- 
tion. It  is  this  instinct  of  decentralization,  or  dispersion  of  force 
and  authority,  which  multiplies  the  town  officers.  Liberty  is 
timorous  and  jealous :  it  eyes  askance  the  consolidation  of  any 
force  that  may  prove  too  strong  for  it,  and  the  presence  of  any 
power  that  rivals  it  is  offensive.  It  is  itself  a  despot,  and  follows 
the  despotic  maxim  of  ruling  by  dividing. 

The  township,  moreover,  is  purely  a  local  self-government,  in 


173  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

which  every  citizen  has  a  part.  It  thus  fosters  the  pride  of  citi- 
zenship, and  stimulates  its  exercise ;  and  as  the  questions  to  be 
decided,  the  means  to  be  used,  and  the  objects  to  be  attained,  are 
of  the  most  homely  and  practical  sort,  practical  citizenship  is 
developed  to  a  remarkable  degree.  No  matter  how  many  theories 
a  New  Englander  may  have  on  the  subject  of  government,  no 
matter  how  many  vagaries  he  may  indulge,  or  how  many  abstrac- 
tions he  may  pore  over,  the  questions,  how  much  he  must  pay  for 
a  school-house,  whether  a  new  road  is  needed  or  not,  and  where 
the  fire-engine  is  to  be  housed,  are  such  as  come  right  home  to 
his  experience  and  common-sense  only,  and  such  as  are  to  be 
answered  by  common-sense  and  experience  alone.  He  may  be 
the  veriest  of  theorists  by  his  fireside,  an  enthusiast  and  a  Don 
Quixote  in  politics,  but  before  he  goes  to  the  town-meeting  he 
lays  all  this  aside  and  puts  on  the  armor  of  common-sense. 

Once  there  the  whole  character  of  the  man  is  changed.  He  no 
longer  dreams  of  Toboso,  no  longer  tilts  at  windmills.  He  revels 
in  the  prosaic.  If  he  charges  at  a  gang  of  rogues,  it  is  not  to  re- 
lease those  worthy  men,  but  to  set  them  to  breaking  stones  on  the 
highway.  The  chairman  is  the  only  one  to  whom  he  looks  up, 
and  he  yields  undue  consideration  to  none,  unless,  in  his  secret 
heart,  he  stands  in  awe  of  the  town-clerk  as  the  power  behind  the 
throne.  His  fingers  hold  the  pencil,  his  features  are  rigid  in  the 
absorption  of  calculation,  he  scrutinizes  every  item  of  the  ac- 
counts, he  allows,  he  objects,  he  resists,  he  haggles.  In  one  re- 
spect he  is  unlike  the  knight  and  very  like  the  squire, — he  sees 
things  as  they  are,  and  mistakes  not  the  scent  of  garlic  for  the 
breath  of  roses.  He  goes  further.  His  candor  gives  way  to  sus- 
picion, he  assumes  that  mankind  are  more  intelligent  than  honest, 
and  he  pauses  at  every  measure,  not  to  weigh  its  merits,  for  that 
is  an  after-step,  but  to  be  certain  that  there  is  no  lurking  evil. 
His  reticence  vanishes  before  a  volubility  to  which  the  members 
of  his  family  are  totally  unused,  and  he  talks  by  the  half  hour  on 
a  matter  which  at  home  he  would  settle  with  ten  words.  One 
thing  he  repeats  incessantly  and  with  tireless  persistence,  that,  as 
practical  men,  they  must  look  at  the  question  in  a  practical  way, 
and  from  a  business  point  of  view.  When  he  has  talked  himself 
out,  has  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  accounts,  and  has  voted  what 
money  he  thinks  he  ought  to  pay,  he  returns  home,  rests  himself 


STABILITY  OF   THE  TOWNSHIP.  1 79 

in  his  easy  chair,  and  resumes  his  perusal  of  Malthus  "  On  Popula- 
tion "  or  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations."  Thus  the  township 
corrects  his  natural  tendency  to  abstractions  and  makes  a  practical 
citizen  of  him  :  his  interests  make  him  an  earnest  one,  and  his 
sense  of  rulership  a  proud  one.  It  is  no  wonder  that,  under  such 
an  institution,  popular  sovereignty  passed  from  the  ideal  to  the 
actual,  and  became  a  reality,  even  though  a  king  sat  upon  the 
throne. 

The  attachment  of  the  New  Englander  for  his  township  could 
be  surpassed  only  by  that  of  a  Virginian  for  his  homestead. 
What  touched  the  township,  touched  him.  Its  citizens  were  his 
neighbors,  connections,  relatives,  and  fellow-rulers.  All  their 
interests  were  his,  and  his  were  theirs.  There  it  was  where 
he  was  born,  brought  up,  had  lived,  and  there  was  where 
he  expected  to  die  and  be  buried.  There,  above  all,  was 
where  his  manhood  displayed  its  highest  and  best  form  of 
development,  and  where  those  rights,  which  came  to  him 
from  his  father,  and  which  it  was  his  determination  should  go 
down  unimpaired  to  his  son,  were  recognized  and  respected. 
There  v/as  only  one  thing  dearer  to  him  than  his  township — his 
hearth.  The  "  town  "  was  as  ancient  as  the  neighborhood,  and 
older  than  the  county  ;  his  great  grandson  knows  that  it  is  much 
older  than  the  State,  or  the  union  of  the  States.  Of  the  political 
divisions  of  which  he  was  a  constituent  none  had  so  great  a  share 
of  his  veneration  as  the  township.  He  loved  it  as  men  always 
love  their  homes,  but  he  venerated  it  for  its  age.  As  a  neighbor- 
hood with  a  name  and  a  positive  existence,  it  was  more  ancient 
than  the  county,  and  was  old  before  the  settlers  had  crossed  the 
Connecticut.  If  it  was  venerable  from  its  age,  and  beloved  for  its 
associations,  it  was  none  the  less  respected  for  its  stability.  The 
commonwealth  had  changed,  and  might  change  again,  but  the 
township  had  not  changed  and  would  not  change.  It  had  seen 
the  oligarchy  of  the  commonwealth  pass  away  and  a  democracy 
take  its  place,  and  yet  it  remained.  It  had  seen  the  absolutism  of 
the  Stuarts  come  and  go,  and  yet  it  was  the  same.  What  would  be 
the  outcome  of  the  troubles  now  existing  between  the  home  govern- 
ment and  the  colonial,  he  could  not  tell.  The  result  was  doubt- 
ful, society  was  already  turned  upside  down,  but  of  one  thing, 
and  one  thing  only,  he  was  certain  :  come  what  might,  the  town- 


l8o  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

ship  would  endure.  All  the  kings  in  the  world  could  not  destroy 
the  neighborhood,  unless  they  tore  it  up  by  the  roots  and  flung  it 
into  the  sea  ;  and  that  no  civilized  being  would  be  guilty  of. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  this  real  world  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  the  township,  figures  so  prominently  in  his  life,  and  that, 
when  any  great  question  arose,  which  affected  either  his  own  or 
all  the  colonies  alike,  his  first  thought  was,  what  will  "  the  town  " 
do  ?  This  positiveness,  this  reality  of  existence,  this  ever-present 
being,  manifests  itself  constantly  in  all  the  laws  of  the  New  Eng- 
landers,  their  writings,^  public  and  private,  and  in  their  conversa- 
tion. Every  man  is  proud  of  his  township,  and  between  the  dif- 
ferent neighborhoods  there  was  an  honorable  rivalry  in  social 
matters. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  the  township  imparts  a  disposi- 
tion to  be  free,  and  discloses  the  art  of  being  free.  The  love  of 
freedom  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon,  and  the  aliment  supplied 
by  self-government  is  as  boundless  in  quantity  and  variety  as 
human  action  itself.  The  practical  education  it  gives  in  the  art 
of  government  is  that  which  comes  from  experience  only.  All 
the  theorizing  and  all  the  book-learning  in  the  world,  can  no 
more  give  the  education  in  the  art  of  government  supplied  by  the 
experience  of  one  year's  administration  of  a  township,  than  specu- 
lation and  mere  learning  can  supply  that  which  is  necessary  to 
the  practice  of  law  or  medicine.  The  distinction  between  science 
and  art  is  nowhere  greater  than  in  government.  How  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  a  community  can  be  learned  from  practice  alone. 
As  the  township  teaches  this  lesson,  and  as  this  education  is  dif- 
fused among  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
that  the  New  Englanders  are,  and  were,  a  people  accomplished  in 
the  art  of  self-government.  Now  self-government  is  the  direct 
complement  of  liberty,  and,  reciprocally,  they  support  each  other. 

^  In  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  to  her  husband,  John  Adams,  when  he  was  at 
Philadelphia,  constant  mention  is  made  of  their  town — what  "  the  town  "  was 
doing,  what  "  the  town  "  contemplated  doing,  and  what  the  "  town  spirit  "  was, 
etc.,  etc.  This  "  town  "  was  a  township,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  it  is 
a  woman  who  speaks,  and  at  a  time  when  a  great  family  affliction,  the  presence 
of  the  enemy  in  Boston,  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  etc.,  naturally  filled  the 
correspondence  of  the  day  with  any  thing  but  what  was  local,  this  constant 
reference  to  "the  town  "  as  the  one  political  unit,  is  strikingly  significant. 
Particularly  is  this  the  case,  when  contrasted  with  the  little  mention  of  the 
commonwealth,  of  which  her  husband,  too,  was  then  Chief  Justice.  While  this 
was  almost  in  ruins,  that  was  more  vigorous  than  ever. 


DEMOCRACY  IN   THE  NORTH.  I  Si 

They  are  indlssolubly  joined  together,  and,  among  the  free  tribes, 
the  condition  of  one  denotes  the  condition  of  the  other.  The 
greater  the  self-government,  the  greater  the  Hberty  of  the  citizen, 
and  as  the  former  was  almost  entire  in  a  country  where  monarchy 
was  little  more  than  a  figure  of  speech,  and  where  popular  sover- 
eignty was  the  reality,  it  follows  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  Nev/ 
England  was  an  exceedingly  lofty  one.  That  it  was  fierce,  to  use 
again  the  term  employed  by  Mr.  Burke,  is  natural,  when  we  consider 
how  full  was  the  play  of  action  enjoyed  by  the  fierce  blood  of  the 
race,  and  when  we  remember  its  characteristic  restiveness  under 
restraint,  and  the  delight  it  takes  in  leaping  all  bounds  which  it 
has  not  itself  set  up. 

5.  The  natural  disposition  of  a  people  expresses  itself  in  their 
laws,  and  the  laws  thus  expressed,  adapting  themselves  to  the 
needs  of  circumstance  and  locality,  develop,  in  their  turn,  their 
institutions,  and  impress  upon  them  the  popular  characteristics. 
Thus,  in  different  localities,  different  branches  of  the  same  people 
display  different  characteristics,  and  the  philosophical  mind,  at 
the  sight  of  these  different  effects,  naturally  seeks  their  causes. 
In  the  New  England  part  of  the  colonies  we  see  no  great  estates, 
no  vast  establishments.  The  people  live  upon  small  pieces  of 
ground,  for  the  most  part  owned  by  themselves,  and  the  middle 
class  predominates  over  the  others  in  number  and  importance. 
In  the  valley  of  the  Hudson,  with  its  Dutch  manors,  and  in  the 
Southern  colonies,  the  establishments  are  great,  the  estates  vast, 
while  particularly  in  the  latter,  the  almost  total  absence  of  a  great 
middle  class  is  to  be  noticed.  Indeed,  as  one  advances  south- 
ward, this  class  becomes  of  less  and  less  importance,  until  in  the 
extreme  South  it  fades  almost  entirely  from  the  sight.  Immense 
estates  meet  the  eye,  upon  which  are  to  be  seen  but  two  forms  of 
society,  the  owner  and  the  owned.  The  former  are  few  in  num- 
ber, and  are  proud,  jealous,  and  arrogant ;  while  the  latter  are  so 
numerous  as  to  comprise  the  great  mass  of  the  population,  and 
are  timorous,  cringing,  and  servile.^ 

At  once  the  distinction  forces  itself  upon  the  eye,  that  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Northern  society  is  democratic,  that  of  the  South- 
ern aristocratic  ;  a  distinction  the  history  of  the  country  has,  ever 
since,  emphasized  at  every  step.     The  causes  of  this  distinction, 

*  Burke's  Speech  on  "  Conciliation  with  America." 


1 82  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

SO  far  as  the  difference  in  character  of  the  settlers  bears  upon  it, 
have  already  been  considered,  but  there  remains  to  be  shown  the 
divergence  which  the  natural  expression  of  these  characters,  the 
laws,  reciprocally  produced.  This  divergence  is  to  be  traced,  in 
a  great  measure,  to  the  course  of  descents  and  distribution  of 
intestate  estates,  and  to  the  establishment  of  the  legal  principle, 
in  the  greater  part  of  the  colonies,  that  lands  were  assets  for  the 
payment  of  debts/  These  rules,  though  silent  in  their  operation, 
acted  as  irresistibly  upon  the  structure  of  society,  as  the  secret 
but  evermoving  forces  of  nature  act  on  the  fabric  of  the  globe. 

Where  the  tendency  of  the  colonies  was  to  a  democracy,  there 
the  rule  of  partible  inheritance  is  invariably  to  be  found. 
Where,  on  the  contrary,  the  tendency  was  to  an  aristocracy,  there, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  adherence  to  the  course  of  descents  at  the 
common  law  is  seen.  Thus  it  was,  that,  in  the  Northern  or 
democratic  colonies,  where  the  rule  of  dividing  the  inheritance 
equally  among  the  children  or  next  of  kin  prevailed,  a  few  gener- 
ations saw  the  large  farms  parcelled  out  into  small  ones,  and  the 
social  equality  which  the  operation  of  this  rule  of  law  brought 
with  it,  produced  at  last  that  democratic  form  of  government 
which  remains  to  the  present  day ;  while,  in  the  Southern  or 
aristocratic  colonies,  where  the  estates,  already  great,  still  further 
increased  under  the  accumulative  effect  of  the  course  of  descents 
at  common  law,  the  social  disparity,  which  this  principle  brought 
with  it,  developed  those  aristocratic  features  which  are  still  to  be 
traced  in  the  constitutions  which  have  succeeded  the  ancient 
charters.'' 

Let  it  not  be  considered  an  anomaly,  that,  in  both  the  North- 
ern and  Southern  colonies,  these  totally  diverse  constitutions  of 
society  united  in  the  endeavor  to  found  a  common  republic.  It  is 
not  the  first  time  that  history  records  the  meeting  of  extremes  in 
a  common  cause.  Indeed,  such  a  concurrence  is  not  unusual,  and 
has  its  explanation  in  natural  and  logical  causes.  The  Northern 
or  democratic  colonies  sought,  in  an  independent  republic,  the 
natural  field  for  the  exercise  of  those  principles  of  social  and 
political  equality  which  animated  them,  while  the  very  haughti- 

^  Story  "  On  the  Constitution,"  cJiap.  xvii,  §  179,  et  seq. 

°  Virginia  would  not  even  permit  the  barring  of  entails  by  fine  and  recovery, 
except  by  special  act  of  the  legislature.     See  Act  1705. 


DISTRIBUTION:   LAND  AS  ASSETS.  1 83 

ness  and  sense  of  power  which  made  the  Southern  colonies  chafe 
at  the  mere  display  of  imperial  authority,  impelled  them  to  seek 
relief  in  independence  of  that  restraint,  and  greater  aggrandize- 
ment in  a  form  of  government  which  their  assumption  of  superi- 
ority flattered  them  they  would  control.  Both,  then,  desired  and 
sought  a  republic  ;  the  difference  between  them  being,  that  one 
desired  a  democratic,  the  other  an  aristocratic  republic. 

The  second  powerful  incentive  to  a  democratic  constitution  of 
society,  was  the  disposition  to  make  lands  liable  for  the  payment 
of  debts.  In  England,  lands  were  liable  only  to  what  in  law  par- 
lance is  called  an  extent  upon  an  elegit ;  whereby  a  moiety  of  the 
lands  was  held  by  writ  until  the  debt  was  paid,  when  it  was  re- 
leased. But,  in  a  great  number  of  the  colonies,  lands  were  liable 
to  be  set  off  upon  appraisement,  or  sold  for  the  payment  of  debts. 
In  a  country  where  there  was  little  money  but  much  land,  the 
latter  was  naturally  substituted  for  the  former,  and  hence  it  was, 
that  the  principle  of  making  lands  assets  came  to  be  asserted  and 
established  even  in  the  administration  of  decedents'  estates.  It  is 
impossible  here  to  set  forth  fully  the  effects  of  this  principle  upon 
the  structure  of  American  society.  These  effects  may  be  de- 
scribed, on  one  hand  as  moral,  and,  on  the  other,  as  physical. 
The  physical  effects  were,  to  divide  and  cut  up  the  land  into  small 
portions  ;  to  make  farms  instead  of  plantations,  and  to  create  a 
great  middle  class.  The  moral  effects  were,  to  impair  the  Gothic 
reverence  for  the  soil  ;  to  encourage  a  migratory  spirit  by  detach- 
ing the  affection  of  the  people  from  the  land,  and  to  throw  the 
balance  of  power  into  the  hands  of  the  very  class  this  principle 
had  itself  created.  These  effects,  it  may  be  added,  have  grown 
in  magnitude  until  the  present  day,  when,  by  the  operation  of 
time  and  the  downfall  of  the  aristocratic  States,  we  behold  them  in 
full  possession  of  the  country.  The  Gothic  attachment  to  the 
soil  itself  has  almost  died  away,  and  that  mysterious  instinct 
which  has  so  often  invigorated  the  fainting  energies  of  the  Teu- 
tonic race,  seems  to  have  wellnigh  disappeared  before  an  impulse 
which  finds  expression  in  the  judicial  assertion,  that  realty  shall 
be  as  easily  transferred  as  personalty.  When  to  these  are  added 
the  curtailment  of  entails,  the  abolition  of  the  -ight  of  primogeni- 
ture, the  repugnance  to  long  trusts,  and  the  facilities  given  to  the 
alienation  of  estates  by  public  registry  and  simplicity  in  the  forms 


1 84  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

of  conveyance,  it  is  not  surprising,  that,  in  the  words  of  Daniel 
Webster,  there  "  has  been  a  great  subdivision  of  the  soil  and  a 
great  equality  of  condition, — the  true  basis,  most  certainly,  of  a 
popular  government." 

We  have  now  completed  our  consideration  of  Mr.  Burke's  six 
capital  sources  whence  the  spirit  of  Liberty  in  the  colonies  de- 
rived its  intractability  or  fierceness  ;  and  we  have  discussed  such 
other  elements  as  are  allied  or  of  kindred  with  these,  and  without 
which  their  full  force  could  not  be  appreciated.  This  considera- 
tion, it  has  doubtless  been  observed,  has  really  embraced  the 
development  of  those  race  or  tribal  qualities  essential  to  the 
existence  of  defiant  and  aggressive  liberty  among  free  peoples. 
These  qualities  are  shown  to  be  the  same  as  those  in  the  parent 
stock  from  which  they  sprung,  but  modified  by  change  of 
physical  conditions,  and  enriched  by  characteristics  drawn  from 
the  soil  into  which  they  had  been  transplanted.  We  have  seen, 
too,  that  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  colonies  developed  an 
exceedingly  great  individuality  ;  that  predisposition  to  local  self- 
government  expanded  without  let  or  hindrance ;  and  that  this 
individuality,  or  sense  of  personal  importance  and  responsibility 
in  matters  political,  combined  with  this  predisposition,  naturally 
tended  to  render  the  spirit  of  liberty  bold.  We  shall  yet  see,  so 
self-reliant  had  it  become,  that  it  was  intractable  when  opposed, 
and,  when  assailed,  fierce. 

Not  the  least  influence  toward  this  result  was  exerted  by  a 
cause  which,  though  an  indirect  one,  is  of  the  highest  importance, 
and  which  is  next  to  be  considered  :  a  cause  which,  springing 
from  relations  to  the  mother-country  created  by  an  artificial  sys- 
tem, and  securing  material  prosperity  to  the  colonists,  at  the 
same  time  favored  the  growth  of  self-government  by  making  it 
the  compensation  for  the  enjoyment  by  the  parent  of  a  monopoly 
of  colonial  trade.  Conditions  which  permitted  local  self-govern- 
ment to  root  itself  and  develop  without  interference,  while  they 
were  simultaneously  strengthening  the  colonies  with  wealth,  de- 
serve the  thoughtful  consideration  now  to  be  given  them. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Commercial  Relations  of  the  Colonies, 

THE  annihilation  of  French  power  in  America  was  the  sig-- 
nal  to  put  in  force,  with  exasperating  exaction,  those  Acts 
of  Trade  which  related  to  colonial  commerce  with  foreign  peo- 
ples alien  to  the  British  crown,*  The  destruction  of  the  French 
power  had  several  important  results  :  the  northern  colonies  were 
relieved  from  a  pressure  which  had  cemented  their  connection 
with  England  ;  the  part  their  troops  had  taken  had  taught  them 
their  capacity  for  self-defence,  and  the  immigration  that  came 
with  peace  was  rapidly  augmenting  the  natural  increase  of  popu- 
lation everywhere."  As  these  results  of  the  war  made  themselves 
felt,  the  importance   of  the  colonies  became  greater,  the  people 

'  "  It  was  hard  parting  with  a  free  open  trade  to  all  parts  of  the  world  which 
the  Massachusetts  carried  on  before  the  present  charter.  The  principal  Acts 
of  Parliament  were  made  many  years  before,  but  there  was  no  custom-house 
established  in  the  colonies,  nor  any  authority  anxious  for  carrying  those  acts  into 
execution.  It  was  several  years  after  the  new  charter  before  they  were  gener- 
ally observed."  Hutch.,  "  Hist.  Prov.  of  Mass.  Bay,"  ed.  1767,  ii,  447.  The 
first  charter  was  from  Charles  I.  The  "present  charter,"  here  alluded  to,  was 
that  of  William  and  Mary,  1691.     See  note,  this  chapter, /c?j-/. 

'  "Dans  les  guerres  dont  nous  venons  de  parler,  les  hommes  de  colonies  et 
d' opinions  differenles  combattirent  souvent  cote  a  cote,  oubliant  a  1'  heure  du 
peril  toule  haine  on  jalousie  anciennes.  lis  connurent  leur  force  en  convoquant 
des  assemblees,  en  levant  et  en  entretenant  des  troupes.  Ne  recevant  ni  secour*^ 
ni  conseils  de  1'  Angleierre  aux  moments  les  plus  difficiles,  ils  apprirent  ainsi  a 
penser  et  a  agir  en  dehors  de  la  tutelle  de  la  mere-patrie.  Par  la  connaissance  de 
leurs  droits,  les  idees  democraiiques  prirent  racine  chez  eux  et  ils  apirerent  k  la 
liberte. 

"  La  maniere  dont  les  officiers  anglais  se  conduisaient  envers  les  troupes  col- 
oniales,  se  moquant  ouvertement  de  la  tournure  gauche  et  embarrassee  des 
recrues,  contribua  aussi  a  affermer  1'  union  des  colons.  Beaucoup  d'  officiers 
americains  experimentes  avaient  ete  remplaces  par  de  jeunes  subalternes  anglais, 
mais  cela  ne  put  empecher  Washington,  Gates,  Montgomery,  Stark,  Arnold, 
Morgan,  Putnam,  et  une  foule  d'  auires,  de  faire  leur  education  militaire,  et 
d'  apprcndre  meme,  ainsi  qu*  ils  le  montrerent  lorsque  le  temps  en  fut  venu,  4 

185 


1 86  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

were  emboldened  to  assert  rights  heretofore  unrecognized,  and 
their  air  of  self-reliance  strengthened  the  suspicion,  which  had 
always  existed  at  home,'  that  they  were  ready  to  demand  their  in- 
dependence as  soon  as  the  natural  course  of  development,  now  no 
longer  to  be  ignored,  would  enable  them  to  do  so.  So  long  as  the 
presence  of  the  French  overawed  the  frontier,  so  long  these  col- 
onies were  unable  to  set  up  for  themselves  ;  but,  that  compression 
removed,  and  with  their  hands  strengthened  by  immigration,  the 
danger  of  insubordination  became  manifest  to  England,  and  she 
determined  to  forestall  such  a  catastrophe  by  clipping  the  wings 
that  seemed  to  her  already  fluttering  for  flight.  To  do  this,  no 
expedient  appeared  so  effectual  as  one  which  would  strengthen 
the  home  government  at  the  same  time  that  it  weakened  the  col- 
onies. Were,  however,  a  law  enacted  for  that  purpose,  its  antago- 
nism to  colonial  interests  would  be  so  apparent  that  resistance 
might  be  provoked  by  the  very  act,  and  the  government  might 
thus  find  on  its  hands  the  worst  of  all  evils,  a  rebellion,  which 
would  not  only  withhold  what  was  expected  to  be  gained,  but 
which  would  risk  the  enjoyment  of  what  was  already  in  posses- 
sion. Nothing,  on  the  contrary,  could  be  more  reasonable  than 
that  existing  laws  should  be  enforced,  and  these,  happily,  were  at 
hand. 

As  early  as  the  time  of  Richard  II.,  in  order  to  foster  the  crea- 
tion and  maintenance  of  a  navy,  it  had  been  enacted  by  Parlia- 
ment, that  **  none  of  the  king's  liege  people  should  ship  any  mer- 
chandise out  of  or  into  the  realm,  except  in  the  ships  of  the  king's 
ligeance,  on  pain  of  forfeiture."  This  act  was  afterward  re- 
pealed, or  became  obsolete,  and,  though  one  or  two  attempts  were 
made  to  establish  it,  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  the  Common- 
wealth, that  the  policy  of  England  concerning  the  carrying-trade 
of  the  ocean  was  settled  and  distinctly  proclaimed  in  what  are 
known  as  the  Navigation  Acts  and  the  Acts  of  Trade.  These  em- 
bodied a  policy  which  had  for  its  object  the  supremacy  of  the 
British  flag  on  the  high  seas,  the  aggrandizement  of  the  carrying- 

combattre  les  reguliers  anglais."  Nolte,  "  Hist,  des  Etats-Unis  d'  Amerique,'' 
chap,  xix,  2i6. 

"  The  treatment  of  the  provincial  officers  and  soldiers  by  the  British  officers 
during  that  war  made  the  blood  boil  in  ray  veins."  "  Life  and  Works  of  John 
Adams,"  ix,  592. 

^  See  Appendix  D. 


MARITIME    SUPREMACY    OF   THE  DUTCH.  1 87 

trade  by  England,  and  the  absolute  control  and  direction  of  the 
commerce  of  her  colonies.  The  Navigation  Acts  were  intended 
to  regulate  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain  with  foreign  peoples, 
while  the  Acts  of  Trade  were  designed  more  particularly  for  the 
regulation  of  the  internal  and  colonial  trade  :  both  together  con- 
stituted the  system  by  which  England,  as  a  commercial  power, 
sought  her  prosperity 

The  discovery  of  America  and  the  doubling  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  gave  the  signal  to  the  great  powers  to  scramble  for 
the  rest  of  the  globe.  The  scene  presented  was  like  that  at  the 
loot  of  a  Chinese  palace.  All  had  but  one  object,  booty :  the 
rights  of  the  weak  were  disregarded,  every  one  looked  out  for 
himself,  and,  even  when  so  loaded  down  with  spoil  as  to  be  in- 
capable of  grasping  more,  each  quarrelled  with  his  neighbor  about 
what  he  had.  Spain  and  Portugal,  with  their  inherent  greed  of 
territory,  acquired  the  greatest  share  of  land,  but  Holland,  whose 
spirit  was  a  commercial  one,  contented  herself  with  what  in  the 
end  proved  to  be  still  more  valuable,  the  trade.  The  Dutch  went 
everywhere,  and  spurred  by  the  lust  of  gain,  pushed  their  voy- 
ages into  every  sea  and  anchored  in  every  port.  Their  commerce 
grew  so  rapidly  and  to  such  an  extent,  that  they  secured  a  propor- 
tion of  the  carrying  trade  as  never  before  had  been  concentrated 
in  the  hands  of  one  people,  and  soon  became  to  the  whole  world 
what  the  Venetians  had  been  to  the  Mediterranean.  Antwerp 
took  the  place  of  Venice,  and  as  commerce  went  on  gathering  in 
their  hands,  the  Dutch  continued  to  thrive  as  their  neighbors  de- 
clined. France  had  no  merchant  service  worth  mentioning. 
Spain  and  Portugal  saw  their  commerce  shrink,  not  by  reason  of 
the  fierceness  of  Dutch  competition  only,  but  in  consequence  of 
their  overweening  disposition  toward  adventure  instead  of  trade, 
and  from  the  restrictions  by  which  they  themselves  hampered 
their  colonial  traffic.  The  Thames  was  nearly  bare  of  merchant- 
men, the  galleons  deserted  the  Adriatic,  whose  ports  harbored 
nothing  greater  than  feluccas,  and  from  the  Scheldt  to  the  Hud- 
son, and  from  the  Hudson  to  Java  and  Japan,  the  lugger  i)loughed 
the  waves  unchallenged.  To  extend  her  trade,  to  protect  her  con- 
voys, to  keep  what  she  had,  to  get  more,  to  expel  intruders,  and 
t-o  drive  off  her  rivals,  Holland  created  and  kept  afloat  a  navy 


1 88  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

which  soon  became  the  terror  of  the  seas,  not  so  much  for  what 
it  actually  did  (for  instinct,  interest,  and  circumstance  all  dis- 
posed the  Dutch  toward  peace),  but  for  what  it  could  do,  and 
what  the  least  provocation  might  incite  it  to  do.  All  nations  in 
this  way  became  tributary  to  her,  and  the  wealth  of  Holland  rose 
with  her  tides. 

With  those  tides  it  also  ebbed.  Of  all  the  people  that  brought 
tribute  to  this  little  publican,  none  approached  the  receipt  of 
customs  with  so  bad  a  grace  as  England.  Her  territory  consisted 
of  islands,  and  inasmuch  as  she  could  neither  come  nor  go  unless 
upon  the  ocean,  she  was  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  waves. 
In  them  was  her  sustenance  and  her  wealth,  upon  them  she  be- 
held her  natural  field  of  action,  and  there,  to  say  the  least,  she 
should  meet  the  other  maritime  powers  upon  an  equality.  Yet, 
for  generation  after  generation,  she  was  compelled  to  sit  with 
folded  hands  and  see,  passing  her  very  doors,  the  wealth  of  the 
world  on  its  way  to  pay  toll  to  a  handful  of  people  who  lived  in  a 
swamp,  and  whom  she  could  crush  could  she  only  have  the  op- 
portunity. That  opportunity,  however,  rarely  presented  itself, 
and  when  it  did  come,  it  came  at  such  times  and  in  such  shapes 
that  she  could  never  take  advantage  of  it.  Sometimes  it  was  her 
own  dissensions,  sometimes  her  lack  of  means,  sometimes  the 
popular  indisposition  to  weaken  a  Protestant  power,  but,  be  it 
what  it  may,  there  was  always  something  which  prevented  her  pro- 
fiting by  the  occasion.  In  the  meantime  Holland  grew  richer  and 
richer.  At  last,  when  England  was  rent  by  civil  strife  and  in  a 
predicament  so  sorry  as  to  render  her  an  object  of  insult  to  the 
domineering  Dutch  ;  just  at  the  time  when  it  could  be  least  ex- 
pected of  her  to  rise  and  resent  affront,  and  when,  perhaps,  she 
herself  did  not  seriously  contemplate  such  an  act,  just  at  that  time 
she  took  the  step  which  henceforth  wrought  such  a  wonderful 
change  in  the  destiny  of  herself  and  of  her  rival.  In  a  few  years 
the  carrying-trade  of  Holland  declined,  her  magnificent  fleet  was 
brought  to  its  destruction,  the  commerce  of  the  world  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Dutch  to  the  English  shipping,  the  supremacy  of 
the  ocean  was  shifted  from  the  decks  of  Van  Tromp  to  those  of 
Blake,  and  England  was  started  upon  a  career  of  prosperity  which 
at  last  made  her  mistress  of  the  seas. 

All   this  was    accomplished   by  an    act   of   Parliament,  wliich. 


THE  NAVIGATION  ACT.  1 89 

passed  during  the  Commonwealth,  was  re-enacted  and  continu- 
ously enforced  after  the  Restoration.*  It  provided  simply,  that 
thenceforward  no  goods,  the  produce  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  America, 
should  be  imported  into  England  or  exported  out  of  it,  but  in 
vessels  belonging  to  the  people  of  England,  and  that  no  goods, 
the  produce  or  manufacture  of  any  part  of  Europe,  should  be 
imported  unless  in  English  ships,  or  ships  of  the  country  where 
such  goods  were  produced  or  manufactured,  and  that,  of  these 
English  ships,  the  master  and  three  fourths  of  the  mariners  should 
be  English,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  ship  and  cargo. 

This,  the  old  act  of  Richard  II.  in  spirit,  was  enlarged  and 
strengthened  from  time  to  lime  by  others  having  the  same  object. 

The  effect  of  these  Navigation  Acts  was,  to  place  the  commerce 
of  England  in  English  ships,  to  call  back  English  mariners  from 
foreign  decks  to  their  own,  to  give  English  capital  employment  in 
English  bottoms,  and  to  make  England  the  sole  staple,  or  distribut- 
ing centre,  of  the  colonies.  Thus  nothing  could  be  brought  to 
England  by  foreigners,  except  what  she  herself  could  not  supply, 
and  as  nothing  could  go  to  the  colonies  unless  from  or  through 
English  hands,  so  neither  could  any  thing  be  exported  thence  but 
through  the  same  channel.  The  absolute  control  of  her  colonial 
commerce  being  taken  by  England  into  her  own  hands,  the  sup- 
ply of  her  markets  by  foreign  vessels  was  cut  down  to  the  root, 
and  the  world  was  given  to  understand  that  what  England  wished 
of  its  traffic  she  would  take,  but  what  she  could  or  would  not 
have,  it  might  keep.  Inasmuch  as,  at  that  time,  the  Dutch  were 
almost  the  sole  carriers,  they  were  the  ones  most  to  be  injured, 
and  the  English  Navigation  Act  was  naturally  interpreted  by  them 
to  mean  the  sheer  annihilation  of  Holland  as  a  great  maritime 
power.  They  therefore  struggled  hard  before  submitting  to  the 
inevitable  effect  of  this  legislation,  but  the  English  held  the  line 
firmly,  and  the  prize  of  maritime  supremacy  was  at  last  landed 
upon  their  decks. 

What  led  the  English  to  take  this  sudden  step  after  waiting 
motionless  so  long,  is  doubtful.     Some  say  that  a  disposition  to 

^  The  acts  passed  by  the  legislature  of  the  Commonwealth  were  not  recog- 
nized as  laws  after  the  Restoration,  inasmuch  as  they  had  not  the  assent  of  the 
crown.  *' Where  is  Downing's  statute?  British  policy  has  suppressed  all  the 
laws  of  England,  from  1648  to  1660.  The  statute  book  contains  not  one 
line." — John  Adams,  "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  330. 


IpO  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

punish  certain  colonies  for  lukewarmness  toward  the  Common- 
wealth produced  it^;  others,  the  necessity  of  strengthening  the 
fleet  to  a  pitch  where  it  could  counteract  the  efforts  of  the  army 
to  dissolve  Parliament '  ;  and  others,  again,  attribute  it  to  a  desire 
to  punish  the  Dutch  for  harboring  the  royal  family  and  the  dis- 
affected, and  to  the  revengeful  spirit  of  St.  John,  who  more  than 
once  during  his  embassy  received  the  attentions  of  Dutch  mobs, 
and  to  whom  the  most  sensitive  reminiscence  of  his  sojourn  in 
Holland  was  that  of  being  thrashed  there  by  the  Duke  of  York, 
afterward  James  11/  None  of  these  reasons  is  sufficient.  If  it 
were  passed  in  order  to  punish  certain  colonies,  why  did  it  not 
discriminate  between  the  friendly  and  the  unfriendly,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, between  Barbadoes  and  Connecticut  ;  or,  if  it  were  at  all 
intended  for  punishment,  how  is  it  that  Massachusetts,  friendly 
to  the  Commonwealth,  adopted  it  of  her  own  motion  ?  The  rea- 
son that  it  was  intended  to  offset  the  army  by  a  fleet,  fares  no 
better  ;  for,  though  impending  dissolution  stared  Parliament  in 
the  face,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  legislature  looked  for 
immediate  help  from  a  marine  which  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions would  require  years  to  develop.  As  for  the  remaining 
reasons,  while  they  may  account  for  the  readiness  of  individ- 
uals to  approve  it,  they  fail  to  offer  motives  for  public  action. 
Anger,  resentment  and  desire  for  revenge  on  personal  enemies, 
are  not  causes  which  usually  control  the  actions  of  people, 
least  of  all  of  one  so  deliberate  as  the  English,  or  of  one  which, 
like  them,  is  governed  by  interest.  If  such,  however,  were  the 
motives,  why  is  it  that  this  policy  was  made  definitive  and  en- 
during under  the  reigns  of  those  who  had  been  the  objects  of  this 
anger  and  resentment,  and  who,  moreover,  owed  Holland  grati- 
tude for  shelter  when  proscribed  ?  We  must  look  to  other  reasons 
than  those  given  for  the  origin  of  the  Navigation  Act,  and  we 
naturally  turn  to  the  most  general  motives  of  national  action — 

^  Eccleston's  "  Engl.  Antiq.,"  vi,  chap,  v,  sec.  2  ;  Hildreth,  r^  355. 

*  Green,  "  Short  Hist.,"  etc.,  chap.  viii. 

'  "The  famous  Navigation  Act  *  *  *  arose  from  a  personal  affront 
offered  to  one  of  our  republican  ambassadors."  Lord  Campbell,  "Lives  of 
the  Chief  Justices,"  tit.  St.  John.  Whitelocke,  487.  491;  "New  ParL 
Hist.,"  HI,  364;  Ludlow's  "  Mems.,"  133.  250.  But  John  Adams  says,  that 
the  Act  was  proposed,  under  resentment  for  ill-treatment,  too,  by  George  Down- 
ing, a  native  of  New  England,  who  was  sent  to  Holland,  as  ambasbador,  by 
Cromwell.  — "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  329. 


TRUE   ORIGIN  OF   THE  NAVIGATION  ACT,  I9I 

self-interest  and  necessity.  In  these,  it  is  conceived,  the  true 
reasons  for  this  Act  are  to  be  found.  The  cramped  powers  of 
England  struggled  to  be  free,  and  to  develop  themselves  naturally. 
This  could  take  place  only  on  the  field  in  which  nature  had 
placed  her,  but  from  which  she  was  debarred  by  the  possession 
of  Holland.  Her  first  step  then  was  to  gain  a  footing  of  equality 
on  the  ground  already  appropriated  by  her  neighbor ;  that  done, 
the  law  of  competition  would  do  the  rest.  As  every  thing  de- 
pended solely  upon  herself,  it  was  to  her  own  resources  that  she 
had  to  look.  This  Act  made  use  of  all  her  forces,  and  was 
naturally  adopted  by  a  power  conscious  of  the  necessity  of  self- 
development,  and  of  the  fact,  that,  unless  she  was  as  free  upon 
her  natural  field  of  action,  the  ocean,  as  her  rivals,  she  never 
could  develop.  The  destruction  of  the  Armada,  and  many  a 
naval  victory  since  then,  had  rightly  given  the  English  a  firm 
reliance  upon  their  powers  to  maintain  their  footing  by  the  force 
of  arms,  but  these  same  victories  had  also  taught  them  that  the 
force  of  arms  merely  will  never  command  substantial  trade.  This 
is  a  victory  with  which  force  has  nothing  to  do  except  to  render 
sure  its  fruits,  and  it  is  to  be  achieved  only  by  the  wisdom  and 
energy  which  know  how  to  make  the  most  of  favorable  conditions. 
It  was,  then,  strictly  according  to  natural  law,  that  a  maritime 
people  conscious  of  the  physical  ability  to  maintain  their  footing 
upon  the  waves,  should  take  the  second  step,  and  seek  to  share 
the  wealth  of  the  sea  by  making  use  of  every  resource  that  nature 
and  social  development  had  given  them. 

It  was  the  clear  head  of  St.  John  that,  enlightened  by  what  he 
observed  in  Holland,  found  England's  remedy  in  a  policy  which, 
while  of  little  benefit  to  those  powers  that  looked  solely  to  terri- 
tory, brought  great  gain  to  those  that  sought  prosperity  in  trade ; 
and  it  was  the  same  shrewdness  which  saw  England's  opportunity 
in  the  Parliament's  necessities.  However,  whether  smarting  under 
resentment  or  not,  St.  John  penned  the  statute,  Whitelocke  had 
it  passed,*  and  the  House  of  Stuart  afterward  adopted  it. 

Its  results  far  transcended  the  wildest  dreams  of  Lombard  and 
Venetian  avarice,  or  the  grandest  schemes  of  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese conquest.  It  not  only  secured  to  the  people  who  enacted 
it  the  greatest  share  of  the  world's  carrying  trade,  but,  at  a  stroke, 

*It  was  passed  October  9,  1651.     Scobell,  ii,  176. 


192  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

it  changed  the  character  of  the  English  colonies,  and  for  the  first 
time  made  them  available  to  England.  Trade  knew  its  master, 
and  at  once  followed  with  becoming  servility/  But  its  effects 
reached  further  than  the  traffic  which  was  its  immediate  object. 
It  put  into  the  hands  of  England  the  means  of  sustaining  itself  as 
the  greatest  of  the  Protestant  powers.  Dutch  Protestantism  had 
been  any  thing  but  aggressive,  or  even  propagandist.  English 
Protestantism,  on  the  other  hand,  was  of  a  totally  different  stamp  ; 
it  was  captious,  intolerant,  and  aggressive,  and  as  soon  as  it  felt 
the  support  of  the  greatest  naval  power,  and  had  the  comfort  and 
assistance  of  the  greatest  merchant-service  in  existence,  it  assumed 
a  stubborn  and  dictatorial  tone  at  home,  and  pushed  its  way  into 
unknown  lands  abroad,  with  the  force  and  rudeness  of  7  con- 
queror. Its  effect  in  this  respect  was  immediately  seen  in  the  re- 
ligious turbulence  which  extended  from  Virginia  to  Massachusetts. 
Down  to  the  time  when  this  Act  was  passed,  England  could  hardly 
be  said  to  have  absolute  control  of  those  who  could  seek  what 
markets  they  chose.  This  Act  gave  her  that  control  by  placing 
the  fortunes  of  her  colonists  entirely  in  her  hands.  With  such  a 
rein  they  could  be  driven  wherever  she  would  have  them.  At  the 
time  the  Act  was  passed,  the  Independents,  the  most  turbulent, 
radical,  aggressive,  and  violent  party  and  sect  that  England  has 
ever  seen,  were  the  dominant  party.  Just  at  that  instant  they 
had  not  possession  of  Parliament,  but  before  the  Act  was  felt  they 
had  every  thing.  Party  and  sect  being  combined  in  them,  every 
thing  political  which  they  did  savored  of  religion,  and  every  thing 
religious  smacked  of  politics.  It  is  natural,  that  being  at  the  time 
the  head  and  front  of  English  Protestantism,  such  Protestantism 
should  reflect  the  character  of  its  leaders.  It  did  so,  and  so  effec- 
tively that  there  was  not  a  colony,  even  the  most  conservative, 
like  Virginia  and  Maryland,  that  did  not  henceforth  carry  with  it 
the  marks  stamped  by  this  new-born  spirit  of  aggression.  Never 
before  could  England  wield  over  the  colonies  the  influence  which 

'See  for  increase  of  trade,  Eccleston's  "Engl.  Antiq.,"  vi,  chap.  v.  He 
tells  us  that  the  mercantile  shipping  in  1688  was  nearly  double  in  tonnage  what 
it  had  been  in  1666,  though  the  Plague  of  1665  and  the  Great  Fire  of  1666  must 
have  checked  the  increase.  DeWitt's  *'  Interest  of  Holland"  also  expressed  the 
liveliest  apprehensions,  in  1669,  of  the  "great  navigation  "  of  the  English.  In 
1676,  the  East  India  Company  doubled  its  capital  out  of  the  accumulated  profits 
of  sixteen  years  only,  and  the  stock  rose  to  245  per  cent.  See  Macpherson's 
"Annals  of  Commerce." 


MONOPOLY.  193 

a  control  of  their  supplies  and  productions  now  gave  hei  :  never 
before  was  Protestantism  led  by  so  aggressive  a  party  as  the  In- 
dependents. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that,  during  this 
period,  Protestantism  in  America  took  upon  itself  a  character 
whose  aggressiveness  differed  from  that  of  Protestantism  in  Eng- 
land only  as  the  conditions  of  the  two  countries  differed. 

Such  was  its  effect  upon  Protestantism,  and  especially  upon 
Protestantism  in  America.  Its  effect  upon  the  commerce  of 
England  in  respect  of  monopoly  was,  however,  more  remarkable  : — • 
it  took  monopoly  from  the  hands  of  individuals  and  transferred  it 
to  all  the  people  of  Great  Britain.  It  will  be  observed,  that  the 
principle  was  not  abrogated  nor  denied  :  this  remained  as  firmly 
established  as  ever.  The  parties  alone  were  changed,  and  the 
subjects  of  the  monopoly.  Instead  of  guilds  and  courtiers,  the 
whole  people  of  Great  Britain  were  to  be  the  monopolists  ;  and 
instead  of  certain  articles,  the  whole  colonial  trade  was  to  be 
monopolized. 

The  growth  of  English  trade  had  been  injuriously  affected  by  a 
fungus  growth  of  monopolies,  which,  from  time  to  time,  and 
notably  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  had  threatened  to  com- 
pletely sap  the  vitality  of  commercial  life.  It  is  singular  now  to 
look  back  upon  the  mushroom  appearance  traffic  then  presented  ; 
and  when  we  consider  the  extent  of  the  evil  and  the  grievous 
injury  it  wrought,  the  patience  and  long-suffering  of  the  people  is 
incredible.  "Is  bread  in?"  exclaimed  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mons in  Elizabeth's  time,  when  a  monopoly  act  was  presented. 
"  Bread  !  "  echoed  the  astonished  mover  of  the  measure.  "  Yes." 
retorted  the  questioner,  "  for,  if  it  is  not,  it  is  the  only  thing  left 
out."  The  aristocracy  demanded  monopolies  as  the  readiest 
means  of  filling  the  pockets  of  its  needy  members  ;  the  monarch 
granted  them  as  the  shortest  and  easiest  way  of  enriching  favor- 
ites ;  and  trade  in  general  insisted  on  them  as  inducements  to 
remote  ventures.  The  guilds,  one  and  all,  true  to  the  instincts  of 
corporations,  clamored  for  monopolies.  A  new  trade  could  not 
be  started  unless  it  was  fostered  by  monopoly  ;  an  old  one  could 
not  be  sustained  without  the  help  of  exclusion.  There  was  a 
monopoly  in  hides,  another  in  wool,  another  in  salt  ;  in  gold 
thread,  in  silver  thread,  in  flax,  in  hemp.  Competition  was  dis- 
couraged, and  no  one  dreamed  of  disputing  the  prerogative  o£ 


194  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  crown  to  grant  as  privileges  what  are  now  regarded  as  of 
common  right.  All  that  was  done  by  way  of  correction  was, 
to  clip  off  or  pinch  the  twigs  ;  no  one  dared  to  lay  the  axe 
to  the  root.  At  times  those  who  had  to  do  the  paying  would 
shear  down  this  parasitic  growth,  but  nevertheless  the  poison 
of  monopoly  still  remained  in  the  bone  and  marrow  of 
trade. 

In  all  this  the  Navigation  Act  effected  a  great  change.  When, 
under  its  influence,  the  greatest  share  of  the  carrying-trade  betook 
itself  to  English  ships,  and  the  whole  colonial  traffic  was  poured 
upon  English  wharves,  trade  began  to  assume  a  different  aspect 
in  the  eyes  of  British  merchants.  What  was  the  colonial  trade 
but  monopoly  on  a  scale  hitherto  undreamed  of  ?  Here  were  the 
exports  and  imports  of  numbers  of  far-off  countries  concentrated 
under  the  control  of  a  single  people.  It  was  monopoly  on  a 
gigantic  scale,  beside  which  the  monopoly  of  separate  articles, 
like  hides  or  hemp,  shrunk  into  insignificance.  Moreover,  the 
wealth  that  flowed  into  the  country  by  this  F^ystem  was  so  great, 
that  the  necessity  for  the  former  system  no  longer  pressed 
heavily,  and  besides,  the  people  at  large  being  benefited  in  com- 
mon now  began  to  look  with  jealous  eye  upon  the  monopolies 
which  favored  individuals  at  the  expense  of  the  community. 
Hence  the  old  system  made  way  for  the  new.  First  the  monopo- 
lies in  favor  of  courtiers  dropped  off,  then  the  guilds  began  to 
lose  their  character  of  pure  monopolists,  and,  finally,  nothing  of 
the  old  system  remained  but  a  few  survivors  who  claimed  a  right 
to  exist  by  the  force  of  vested  rights.  Even  these  came  to  an 
end,  and  the  new  system  was  in  full  possession  of  the  field. 
Monopoly,  as  a  principle,  was  seemingly  as  strong  and  as  vigorous 
as  ever,  but,  evidently,  it  had  submitted  to  a  change — it  had 
passed  from  individuals  to  the  people  at  large,  and  this  change  is 
extremely  significant. 

To  the  Act  of  Navigation  is  due  this  great  change  in  monopoly, 
whereby  the  demand  and  the  supply  of  a  score  of  active  commu- 
nities were  placed  under  the  control  of  one  people.  To  this  Act, 
therefore,  is  due  the  changed  relations  of  the  colonies  to  the 
mother-country.  Henceforth  they  were  regarded  mainly  as  feeders 
to  its  carrying-trade,  as  consumers  of  its  manufactures,  as  factories 
for  the  distribution  of  its  capital,  and,  in  a  word,  as  mere  com- 


LEGISLA  TION  CONCERNING  TRADE,  I95 

mercial  appendages  of  what  was  now  the  great  commercial  power. 
Dominion  became  subordinate  to  trade.' 

I. — The  Legislation  concerning  Trade  and  Navigation. 

That  such  was  the  effect  upon  the  relations  of  the  British 
colonies  toward  the  mother-country,  is  disclosed  by  a  brief  con- 
sideration of  the  imperial  legislation  which  followed  the  Act,  of 
Navigation,  and  of  the  treatises  having  the  colonial  trade  for  their 
subjects,  written  from  time  to  time  by  Englishmen,  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Act,  and  before  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act.  From 
both  these  sources  we  can  clearly  discern  the  view  taken  of  the 
colonies  by  the  government  and  the  commercial  world  of  England, 
and  as  clearly  ascertain  the  spirit  which  animated  the  intercourse 
of  the  mother- country  with  her  offspring,  and  which  inspired  the 
enactments  of  Parliament  and  the  writings  of  political  economists. 
I     a.    The  Three  Acts. 

\  Beginning,  then,  with  the  re-enactment  of  the  Navigation  Act 
after  the  Restoration,  we  find  that  the  new  system  which  is  to 
regulate  colonial  trade  and  define  the  relations  of  the  colonies  to 
the  parent,  is  contained  in  three  Acts  of  Parliament.'  Firsts  in  the 
re-enactment  itself  of  the  Act  of  Navigation  in  1660  ;  secondly,  in 
an  act,  passed  in  1663,  entitled  "an  Act  for  the  encouragement  of 
trade";  and,  thirdly,  in  an  act,  passed  ini672,  and  entitled  "an 
Act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  Greenland  and  Eastland  fisheries, 
and  for  the  better  securing  the  plantation  trade." 

In  these  three  acts  is  to  be  found  the  system.  Many  others 
sprung  from  these  and  followed  them,  but  as  they  only  enlarge, 
extend,  or  render  more  effective  the  acts  mentioned,  they  may  be 
regarded  merely  as  modifications,  in  one  form  or  another,  of  the 

'"A  great  empire  has  been  established  for  the  sole  purpose  of  raising  up  a 
nation  of  customers  who  should  be  obliged  to  buy  from  the  shops  of  our 
different  producers  all  the  goods  with  which  those  could  supply  them," — Adam 
Smith,  "  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,"  ii,  517. 

"  Si  cette  nation  envoyait  au  loin  des  colonies,  ellele  ferait  plus  pour  etendre  son 
commerce  que  sa  domination." — Montesquieu,  "Esprit  des  Lois,"  liv.  xix, 
chap.  27. 

''Stat.  12,  Car.  II.,  c.  18  ;  stat.  15,  Car.  II.,  c.  7  ;  stat.  25,  Car.  II.,  c.  7. 
For  these  acts,  see  Appendix  E. 

"Let  me,  however,  say  in  my  own  name,  if  any  man  wishes  to  investigate 
thoroughly  the  causes,  feelings,  aitd  principles  of  the  Revolution,  he  must  study 
this  Act  of  Navii^ation,  and  the  Acts  of  Trade,  as  a  philosopher,  a  politician, 
and  a  philanthropist.'' — "  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,"  x,  320. 


19^  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

already  established  system.  To  this  supplementary  legislation  the 
term  Acts  of  Trade  may  be  appropriately  confined,  though  all 
are  frequently  comprehended  under  the  generic  name,  Acts  of 
Trade  and  Navigation.  The  three  acts  which  created  the  system, 
were  all  passed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.;  the  others  followed 
rapidly,  and  in  great  numbers,  for  a  century,  until  they  were 
checked  by  the  attempt  to  transform  this  system  of  trade  into 
a  system  of  trade  and  revenue,  by  means  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Stamp  Act,  shortly  after  which  they  terminated  with  the  downfall 
of  the  British  dominion  in  thirteen  of  the  colonies 

St.  John's  Navigation  Act  was  re -enacted  in  1660,  under 
Charles  II.,  as  the  first-fruits  of  the  Restoration.  This  act  for- 
bade importation  into  or  exportation  out  of  the  colonies,  save 
what  came  and  went  in  English  ships,  and  its  object  was,  to  shut 
the  doors  of  the  colonies  against  foreign  trade. 

In  1663  another  step  was  taken,  and  an  act  was  passed  with  the 
object,  openly  avowed  in  its  fifth  section,  of  keeping  the  colonies 
in  "  a  firmer  dependence  "  upon  England,  and  of  making  that 
kingdo7n  the  staple,  or  place  of  distribution,  not  only  of  colonial 
produce,  "  but  also  of  the  commodities  of  other  countries  and 
places^  for  the  supplying  of  them.''  To  effect  this,  the  Act  of  1663 
went  beyond  that  of  1660,  and  exacted,  that  no  supplies  should 
be  imported  into  any  colony,  except  what  had  been  actually  shipped 
in  an  English  port^  and  carried  "  directly  thence  "  to  the  importing 
colony.  This  act  forced  the  colonists  to  get  what  supplies  they 
could  not  themselves  furnish  in  England  only,  and  thus  not  only 
could  none  but  Englishmen  transport  merchandise  to  and  from 
the  colonies,  but  the  colonists  were  not  suffered  to  go  anywhere 
but  to  England  for  what  they  could  not  get  at  home.  If,  for  in- 
stance, any  thing  were  exported  from  Rhode  Island  to  France,  or 
from  France  to  Rhode  Island,  it  could  not  go  directly  from  one 
of  these  countries  to  the  other,  but,  come  from  which  it  might,  it 
had  first  to  be  landed  on  an  English  wharf,  and  to  pay  toll  to 
English  trade  and  English  revenue.  The  goods  were  stopped  in 
tratisitu,  and  the  transaction  was  shorn  of  any  characteristic  be- 
longing to  traffic  between  France  and  Rhode  Island,  and  forced 
to  assume,  first,  one  of  trade  between  France  and  England,  and 
then  one  of  trade  between  England  and  Rhode  Island,  or  vice 
versa.     Come  from  what  quarter  it  might,  it  was  prerequisite  to 


AN  ACUTE  ANGLE  IN  TRADE.  Ipjr 

any  exchange  whatever  of  productions,  that  England  should  be 
the  go-between  or  factor. 

This  position  of  factor  between  the  colonies  and  foreign  mar- 
kets was  a  lucrative  one.  But  the  spirit  of  trade  is  such,  that  it 
regards  much  as  only  a  stepping-stone  to  more,  and  the  next 
enactment  concerning  colonial  trade,  or  that  of  1672,  betrays  this 
characteristic.  The  existing  factorage  was  maintained  only  be- 
tween the  colonial  and  foreign  trade  ;  it  had  no  place  in  inter- 
colonial traffic,  and  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  Rhode  Island 
from  transporting  her  produce  to  the  Carolinas,  or  the  Carolinas 
from  laying  down  their  produce  in  Rhode  Island.  Of  this 
traffic  the  colonies  took  advantage,  and  their  coasting  trade  grew 
rapidly  in  importance.  From  her  situation,  her  resources,  and 
the  peculiar  aptitude  of  her  people  for  this  trade,  New  England 
took  the  leadership,  and  was  rapidly  becoming  toward  the  other 
colonies  what  England  had  already  become  to  the  world,  the 
common  carrier.  As  this  intercolonial  trade  developed,  it  at- 
tracted the  observation  of  the  English  merchants,  who  at  last 
demanded  the  control  of  it.  In  compliance  with  this  demand,  an 
act  was  passed  in  1672  subjecting  any  enumerated  commodity 
(such  commodity  being,  of  course,  one  she  could  herself  supply) 
to  a  duty  equivalent  to  that  imposed  on  the  consumption  of  it  in 
England — and  thus  was  destroyed  the  freedom,  and,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  incentive  of  intercolonial  traffic.  This  act  was  well 
entitled  "an  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  Greenland  and 
Eastland  fisheries,  and  for  the  better  securing  the  plantation  trade.** 
History  is  silent  respecting  the  fisheries,  but  it  has  been  very  out- 
spoken concerning  its  effect  on  the  plantations.  The  effect  was 
this  :  if  Rhode  Island  wished  to  be  supplied  by  Massachusetts 
with  fish,  for  example,  and  Massachusetts  desired  to  furnish 
Rhode  Island  with  that  commodity,  the  delivery  of  the  goods 
could  not  be  made  by  the  producer  to  the  consumer,  but  the  fish 
would  first  have  to  be  sent  to  England,  and  landed  there,  and 
then  be  sent  back  from  England  to  Rhode  Island  before  the  con- 
sumer could  touch  them.  A  line  drawn  from  Boston,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, to  Bristol,  in  England,  and  thence  back  to  Newport,  in 
Rhode  Island,  will  show  the  course  which  a  barrel  of  fish  must 
take,  if  sold  by  Massachusetts  to  Rhode  Island,  before  the  de- 
mands of  English  commerce  were  satisfied ;  it  will  in  all  proba* 


198  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

bility  likewise  show  the  least  angle  with  the  longest  sides  ever 
subtended  on  the  chart  of  trade.  Should,  however,  the  parties  to 
the  transaction  desire  to  avoid  the  risk  and  delay  incident  to  this 
phenomenal  voyage,  they  could  do  so  by  paying  England  the 
difference  between  the  cost  incurred  in  delivering  the  goods  by 
the  base  of  the  triangle,  and  that  incurred  in  delivering  them  by 
the  two  sides.  Without  this  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as 
Rhode  Island  buying  directly  of  Massachusetts,  or  of  Massachu- 
setts selling  directly  to  Rhode  Island.  In  this  problem  the  value 
of  the  angle  was  made  entirely  dependent  on  the  length  of  the 
sides  ;  and  the  longer,  the  better.* 

b.   The  Systejn  embodied  in  the  Three  Acts. 

Such  were  the  provisions  of  the  Three  Acts  enacted  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.,  and  which  acquired  the  name  of  The  Restrictive 
System.  It  was  purely  a  system  of  trade,  and  as  such  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  colonists  without  cavil,  who  found  no  fault  with 
it  until  the  design  of  diverting  it  from  trade  to  revenue  became 
manifest.  A  great  deal  has  been  said  of  its  being  dead  letter, 
and  there  is  no  question  of  its  being  much  and  systematically 
evaded,  particularly  by  the  generation  that  resisted  the  Stamp 
Act  ;  but  the  constant  references  to  it  here  and  abroad,  and  the 
continued  legislation  respecting  it  by  Parliament,  show  clearly 
that  it  maintained  its  position  effectively,  and  that,  both  in 
America  and  in  England,  it  was  regarded  as  the  very  foundation 
upon  which  colonial  social  life  was  built.  That  its  integrity  was 
so  little  impaired  as  to  render  it,  a  century  after  its  adoption,  the 
means  whereby  the  administration  of  George  III.  sought  its  ends, 
and  that  during  its  whole  existence  it  determined  the  relations 
existing  between  England  and  America,  are  reasons  sufficient  for 
here  making  it  the  subject  of  earnest  consideration.  One  thing 
is  certain — without  a  knowledge  of  this  system  and  the  effects 
it  produced,  the  relations  between  the  mother-country  and  the 
colonies  cannot  be  explained,  nor  the  American  Revolution  be 
accounted  for. 

*  **  Shall  none  visit  the  sea-coast  for  fishing?  "  said  Coke  in  1624.  "  This  is 
to  make  a  monopoly  upon  the  seas,  which  are  wont  to  be  free.  If  you  alone  are 
to  pack  and  dry  fish,  you  attempt  a  monopoly  of  the  wind  and  the  sun."  "  Deb. 
of  Commons,"  i.  The  monopoly  James  I.  refused  Was  thus  accomplished  by 
the  Navigation  Act. 


THE  RESTRICTIVE   SYSTEM.  1 99 

The  system  created  by  the  Three  Acts  was  actually  this :  of 
the  two  parties  which  it  immediately  concerned,  one  was  the  sole 
Manufacturer  for  the  other,  who  was  not  even  permitted  to  make 
a  hob-nail  for  itself  ;  this  sole  manufacturer  was  also  the  sole 
Carrier  for  the  other  ;  and  this  sole  carrier  was  likewise  the  sole 
Middleman  between  this  other  and  the  world. 

Trade  never  ran  in  more  restricted  channels,  and  obviously 
monopoly  was  the  mother  of  this  invention.  There  was,  first,  a 
monopoly  of  the  manufactures  required  by  the  colonists  ;  sec- 
ondly, a  monopoly  of  their  exports  and  imports ;  and,  thirdly,  a 
monopoly  of  their  transportation.  The  old  English  notion  of 
monoply  pervades  the  entire  scheme,  and  it  is  seen  that  this  is  the 
controlling  principle  which  made  the  system  of  colonial  trade 
regulation  such  as  to  deserve  the  name  of  The  Restrictive  System. 

At  first  blush  we  are  struck  with  the  apparent  selfishness  and 
injustice  of  a  spirit  which  fostered  communities  who  were  to 
exist  solely  for  the  benefit  of  others  ;  but  our  wonder  becomes 
amazement  when  we  behold  these  communities  satisfied  with  their 
lot,  and  so  content  with  it  that  they  defend  it  as  eagerly,  though 
not  altogether  for  the  same  reasons,  as  the  English  themselves  do  ; 
and,  in  fact,  begin  to  decry  it  only  when  they  suspect  that  it  may 
be  diverted  from  the  purposes  of  its  creation.  Some  great  cause 
must  exist  for  such  placid  contentment  and  satisfaction  ;  there 
must  be  a  valuable  consideration  somewhere  for  what  seems  so 
one-sided  a  bargain.  What  is  it  ?  The  answer  discloses  the  whole 
social  and  political  constitution  of  American  colonial  life,  and  we 
now  turn  to  its  consideration. 

Briefly,  the  answer  is,  that  there  is  compensation  ;  and  that  this 
compensation  is  of  twofold  nature.  First,  there  is  a  pecuniary  or 
material  compensaiiony  and,  secondly,  there  is  a  political  or  moral 
compensation. 

I. — The  PECUNIARY  OR  MATERIAL  COMPENSATION  derived  by  the 
colonies  from  the  Restrictive  System  created  by  the  Acts  of  Naviga- 
tion and  Trade, 

Notwithstanding  the  existing  system  of  commercial  restriction, 

our  ancestors  who  sought  America  after  the  establishment  of  this 
system,  sought  it  with  the  hope  of  gain.  Their  steady  develop- 
ment of  internal  and  external  trade,  the  continued  inflow  of  Eng- 


20O  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

lish  capital,  the  rapid  and  great  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  the 
universal  prosperity  which  characterized  the  colonies,  prove  that 
the  hope  was  not  delusive  and  that  there  was  an  incentive  which 
had  not  failed  them. 

In  the  first  place,  the  conditions  of  colonial  life  ensured  that 
freedom  of  personal  action  and  those  rights  of  property,  without 
which  material  prosperity  is  impossible  anywhere,  no  matter  how 
favorable  the  remaining  conditions,  but  with  which  trade  will 
thrive  even  in  the  face  of  meddlesome  regulation  and  restriction. 
These  elements  of  safety  and  stability  are  to  be  found,  first,  in 
the  Charters,  which  guaranteed  personal  rights  as  well  as  bestowed 
franchises  ;  and,  second,  in  the  open  and  avowed  policy  of  the 
home  government,  that  it  was  not  to  the  interest  of  the  mother- 
country  that  any  relations  should  exist  between  her  and  her 
colonies,  save  those  of  a  purely  commercial  character  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  simple  crown  dependencies  on  the  other.  Where 
there  were  no  charters,  the  absence  of  these  guaranties  was  sup- 
plied, as  has  been  seen,*  by  the  terms  of  the  commissions  issued  to 
the  royal  governors  ;  a  custom  to  which  time  lent  the  force  of 
solemn  grants  under  the  great  seal.  Thus  grants,  custom,  and  the 
self-interest  of  the  strong  party  to  the  contract,  assured  safe  and 
quiet  enjoyment  to  the  party  that  was  weak  in  a  manner  than 
which  nothing  could  be  better  in  the  eyes  of  commerce.  In  a 
political  aspect,  this  assurance  lacked  only  constitutional  guaranty 
to  make  it  perfect.  While,  therefore,  the  energies  of  the  Ameri- 
can were  restricted  by  this  system  to  two  things,  trade  and  agri- 
culture, there  was  no  restraint  placed  upon  him  within  those 
pursuits,  other  than  that  imposed  upon  the  members  of  all  well- 
ordered  societies,  and  he  could  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labor  in 
perfect  security. 

Looking  at  him  in  the  commercial  character  with  which  this 
system  invested  him,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  he  found  his  great- 
est benefit  in  this  very  factorage  which  the  Acts  of  Navigation 
created. 

The  emigrants  who  streamed  to  America,  though  not  paupers, 
were  not  capitalists.  They  were  of  the  classes  which,  in  respect 
of  birth,  were  below  the  highest ;  in  respect  of  means  were  below 
the  rich  ;  but  which,  in  respect  of  position,  were  above  the  lowest. 

^  See  p.  39. 


MATERIAL  COMPENSATION  FOR  RESTRICTION,      201 

They  came  with  the  avowed  object  of  bettering  their  condition, 
of  getting  in  America  the  ready  money  they  lacked  in  England, 
and  of  establishing  in  a  nev,r  country  the  positions  and  fortunes 
the  old  was  powerless  to  create,  and  for  which,  indeed,  society 
there  afforded  no  room.  To  get  money,  however,  money  or  credit 
is  requisite,  and  where  could  these  be  obtained  outside  of  Britain 
and  the  British  possessions  ?  The  Dutch,  who,  alone  of  foreign 
nations,  had  capital  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of  so  vast  a  desert, 
could  not  be  expected,  without  enormous  insurance,  to  part  with 
what,  once  gone  into  foreign  hands  beyond  the  Atlantic,  was  also 
beyond  the  reach  of  recall  ;  and  the  other  peoples  of  Europe  were 
so  deficient  in  available  funds,  or  so  little  commercial  in  disposi- 
tion, as  to  render  recourse  to  them  out  of  the  .question.  In  the 
English,  on  the  contrary,  all  the  qualities  and  conditions  for  de- 
veloping the  new  country  united.  They  had  the  capital  ;  they 
had  an  incentive  for  loaning  it,  in  the  enormous  gain  the  expand- 
ing commerce  of  a  continent  would  be  sure  to  yield  ;  and  they 
had  the  dominion  and  the  power  to  maintain  the  security  of  their 
outlay.  These  people  naturally  became  the  money-lenders  to  the 
Americans,  who,  in  return,  became  to  the  English  in  reality,  as 
they  generally  were  in  name,  their  factors  as  well  as  their  cus- 
tomers. 

It  was  on  English  capital  that  the  Americans  traded,  navigated, 
cultivated,  and  reaped  their  crops  ;  with  it  life  and  activity  filled 
their  coasts,  but  without  it  their  seaboards  and  their  valleys  would 
have  remained  solitudes. 

Being  factors,  they  shared  in  the  profits  of  the  ventures  ;  they 
became  rich  along  with  the  English,  and,  so  long  as  their  right  to 
partition  in  the  common  profits  was  acknowledged,  so  long  as 
their  existence  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  system  was  recognized, 
this  system,  so  far  from  being  considered  an  unmitigated  evil,  was 
regarded  as  something  highly  advantageous.  To  factors  there 
could  be  nothing  objectionable  in  investing  the  colonies  with  the 
attributes  of  factories. 

While  it  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  this 
political  and  actual  control  of  America  which  caused  the  outflow 
of  loanable  capital  to  be  abundant  and  unintermitting,  and  that  it 
was  this  outflow  which  attracted  an  immigration  naturally  com- 
mercial in  character,  it  must  be  observed,  too,  that  the  muKiform 


202  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

interests  of  to-day  had  no  existence  in  those  times,  and  that,  con* 
sequently,  there  was  not  the  material  to  be  raised  in  opposition  to 
the  system  then  as  there  would  be  now.  Trade  and  agriculture 
were  the  only  features  of  colonial  business,  and  in  the  Southern 
colonies  these  were  so  blended  together,  that,  so  far  as  commerce 
was  concerned,  they  may  be  regarded  as  one  and  the  same  thing  : 
the  planter  sold  his  crop  directly  to  England,  and  to  him  were 
consigned  the  manufactured  articles  in  return,  which  he  himself 
distributed  among  the  consumers.  There  was  no  mining,  and 
but  little  manufacture  ;  trade  absorbed  nearly  every  thing,  and, 
the  interests  of  the  colonies  being  thus  commercial,  their  placidity 
under  such  restrictions,  as  that  on  manufactures,  for  example,  is 
readily  accounted  for.  So  long  as  this  restraint  conduced  to  the 
advantage  of  the  commercial  monopoly  of  which  they  shared  the 
gain,  they  were  not  only  content,  but  satisfied  :  when,  however, 
the  grasp  of  the  lion  in  this  partnership  was  laid  on  their  share, 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  uniting  with  the  avidity  for  fur- 
thur  trade  in  what  they  were  loath  to  part  with,  called  forth  a 
resistance  which  proved  as  effectual  as  it  was  prompt. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that  the  colonists  were  compensated  in 
actual  wealth,  for  what,  at  this  distance,  looks  like  a  shocking 
want  of  commercial  freedom.  As  this  privation  was  acquiesced  in 
by  those  who  voluntarily  placed  themselves  under  it ;  was  ac- 
cepted by  those  born  and  bred  on  the  soil,  as  they  accepted  the 
air  they  breathed  and  the  bread  they  ate  ;  and  was  actually  advo- 
cated by  those  who  shared  the  gain  it  brought,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, that,  to  a  certain  extent,  it  existed  more  in  appearance 
than  in  reality  —  particularly  as,  in  reliance  on  the  Charters, 
there  was  widespread  disregard  of  the  Acts,^  and  as  the  sys- 
tematic evasion  of  these  Acts  was  always  winked  at  by  those 
capitalists  in  England,  who,  when  embarking  their  capital  in 
colonial  commerce,  saw  to  it,  that  the   restrictions  intended  for 

^  '*  Notwithstanding  the  acts  of  Parliament  for  regulating  and  restraining  the 
plantation  trade,  a  constant  trade  was  carried  on  with  foreign  countries  for  con- 
traband and  enumerated  commodities.  This  gave  great  offence.  There  was 
no  custom  house.  The  Governor  was  the  Naval  Officer  *  *  *  ^j^fi  being  an- 
nually elected  by  the  people  was  the  more  easily  disposed  to  comply  with  popu- 
lar opinions.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  general  opinion  that  all  acts  of  Parlia- 
ment had  no  other  force,  than  what  they  derived  from  acts  made  by  'he  General 
Court  to  establish  or  confirm  them."  Hutch.  "  Hist,  of  Prov.  of  Mass.  Bay," 
ii,  4.  In  this  last  sentence  we  have  the  reason  for  the  enactment  of  the  Navi- 
gation Act  by  the  General  Court  or  Legislature  of  Massachusetts. 


POLITICAL   COMPENSATION  FOR  RESTRICTION,      203 

Others  should  not  come  home  to  themselves.  Indeed,  it  may  be 
asserted,  that  the  monopoly  existed  more  in  the  system's  princi- 
ple than  in  its  practice.  That  oppression  cannot  be  said  to  be 
intolerable  which  is  sanctioned  by  the  indifference  or  acquies- 
cence of  the  oppressed,  nor  that  restriction  destructive  to  pros- 
perity under  which  poor  and  feeble  communities  became  in  a 
century  marvels  of  thrift  in  the  eyes  of  old  Europe.*  The  colo- 
nies were  compensated,  and,  in  fact,  were  compensated  so  well, 
that,  until  interruption  of  that  compensation  was  threatened,  not 
a  thought  of  revolt  entered  their  minds. 

2. — The  POLITICAL  OR  MORAL  COMPENSATION  etijoyed  by  the  colo- 
nies  in  return  for  the  restriction  upon  their  commerce. 

Were  this  compensation,  however,  merely  pecuniary,  it  is  hardly 
to  be  conceived  that  it  had  been  deemed  sufficient :  but  there  was 
added  one  quite  as  effective,  one  which  gratified  the  highest 
aspirations  of  manhood  and  of  citizenship,  and  which  was  a 
political  compensation.  The  colonists  were  self-governed.  When 
we  consider  that  the  same  people  who  ruled  themselves  in 
America  would  have  had  no  place  in  the  actual  government  of 
Great  Britain  ;  that  they  would  have  been  represented  by  men  in 
whose  election  they  would  have  taken  no  part  ;  that  they  would 
have  been  directly  ruled  by  a  crown  whose  awful  distance  from 
them  would  have  intensified  their  sensibility  of  having  no  share 
whatever  in  the  administration  ;  that  the  revenue  derived  from 
their  taxation  would  have  been  disbursed  by  those  who  sought 
not  their  counsel  and  who  were  beyond  their  control  ;  that  the 
defence  of  their  homes  even  would  have  been  made  without  their 
acting  any  other  part  than  that  of  him  to  whom  it  is  said  go,  and 
he  goeth,  come,  and  he  cometh,  and  that,  in  short,  they  would 
have  had  no  vote  nor  voice  in  public  affairs  ;  to  such  a  people — 
especially  when  it  is  remembered,  that,  as  Britons,  a  love  of  self- 
government  was  their  natural,  tribal  characteristic — to  such  a 
people,  the  exercise  of  self-government  must  have  proved  a  very 

*  Nothing  in  the  history  of  mankind  is  like  their  progress.  For  my  part,  I 
never  cast  an  eye  on  their  flourishing  commerce,  and  their  cultivated  and  com- 
modious life,  but  they  seem  to  me  rather  ancient  nations  grown  to  perfection 
through  a  long  series  of  fortunate  events,  and  a  train  of  successful  industry, 
accumulating  wealth  in  many  centuries,  than  the  colonies  of  yesterday."  Burke, 
"  Speech  on  American  Taxation," 


204  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

blessing,  and  a  compensation  far  outweighing  any  mere  restriction 
cc  traffic.  That  it  was  so  esteemed  by  them  appears  at  every 
:-urn. 

This  political  compensation  was  not  the  result  of  remoteness 
merely  from  the  seat  of  government :  it  sprung  from  their  nature 
as  commercial  dependencies.  Of  course  from  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  a  simply  commercial,  non-political  connection,  no  such 
thing  as  American  representation  in  the  imperial  Parliament  could 
occur.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  neither  did  those  responsi- 
bilities and  burdens  exist  which  a  strictly  political  connection 
would  exact.  For  example,  while  the  colonists,  as  subjects  owing 
allegiance,  could  demand  protection  of  the  mother-country  against 
that  country's  enemies,  that  country  could  not  directly  exact 
revenue  for  the  protection  already  compensated  for  by  allegiance, 
nor  levy  troops  in  a  colony  against  a  power  unprovoked  by  a 
dependency.  These  consequences  flowed  from  the  fact,  that  the 
colonies  were  not  part  of  the  realm  of  England,  nor  of  the  other 
realms  embraced  in  the  Act  of  Ur.ion,  but  were  mere  dependen- 
cies of  the  crowi^  to  which  they  owed  personal  allegiance.  Under 
this  system  the  crown  owed  them  protection  from  attack,  come 
from  what  quarter  it  might  ;  but  the  colonists  owed  the  crown 
the  defence  only  of  their  colony — they  could  not  be  ordered  across 
seas,  as  in  a  war  against  France  or  Spain,  and  in  case  a  colony 
did  go  beyond  its  borders,  in  an  offensive  campaign,  as  when 
the  New  Englanders  attacked  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  entirely  from 
its  own  volition,  and  was  regarded  by  the  imperial  government  as 
an  aid  to  the  king,  which  was  to  be  reimbursed  and  satisfied  from 
the  royal  treasury.  Thus  from  their  nature  as  simple  crown  de- 
pendencies, they  were  exempt  from  the  most  oppressive  service 
incident  to  society,  while  the  operation  of  the  fundamental  maxim, 
no  taxation  without  representation,  preserved  them  from  even 
being  called  upon  to  commute  that  service  by  the  payment  of 
money.  No  wonder  a  revolt  marked  the  termination  of  such 
halcyon  days,  and  no  wonder  that  colonial  opinion  rejected  the 
notion  of  representation  in  the  imperial  Parliament,  even  were  it 
practicable. 

Their  internal  affairs  being  thus  left  to  their  own  management, 
their  legislatures  were  chosen  by  themselves  from  their  own  peo- 
ple.    These  assemblies  had  the  common  good  for  their  object, 


HALCYON  DA  YS,  20$ 

and  they  amply  sufficed  the  purposes  of  their  creation.  The 
judiciary,  though  appointed  by  the  crown,  was  of  their  own  selec- 
tion, and  no  courts  except  those  of  the  land  were  open  to  their 
conviction.  In  every  thing,  too,  which  concerned  the  daily  life 
of  their  neighborhoods,  they  were  lords.  Moreover,  no  standing 
army  was  quartered  upon  them,  nor  were  they  burdened  with  the 
care  of  a  navy.  They,  paid  no  taxes  to  the  empire,  they  were  con- 
strained to  no  service  save  that  of  the  common  defence,  and  thus, 
without  imperial  taxation,  without  the  care  of  an  army  and  navy, 
yet  under  the  protection  of  both,  filling  their  own  jury  boxes, 
masters  of  their  own  affairs,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  rapidly 
accumulating  wealth,  having,  in  fact,  the  advantages  without  the 
burdens  of  Britons,  they  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  political  free- 
dom, and  revelled  in  plenty  such  as  has  rarely  been  vouchsafed  to 
human  kind. 

Add  to  this  the  gratification  the  colonist  felt  in  conducing  to 
the  welfare  and  glory  of  the  splendid  empire  of  which  he  was  a 
part,  and  it  will  be  seen,  that,  as  far  as  his  interests  were  con- 
cerned, his  bargain  was  any  thing  but  a  hard  one. 

We  have  now  seen  in  what  lay  the  colonist's  compensation  for 
commercial  restriction.  He  was  compensated,  first,  in  the  actual 
pecuniary  profits  resulting  from  the  loan  of  English  capital  this 
very  restriction  placed  in  his  hands  ;  next,  in  the  greater  political 
freedom  he  enjoyed  here  than  what  could  possibly  be  his  in  Eng- 
land ;  again,  in  exemption  from  imperial  taxation  and  service  ; 
and  lastly,  in  the  gratification  his  pride  of  blood  received  at  the 
sight  of  the  increase  in  power,  wealth  and  honor,  which  his  hands 
had  brought  to  his  race. 

II. —  The  Treatises  having  the  colonial  trade  for  their  subject ^  and 
the  significance  of  them. 

There  was  nothing  to  disturb  the  enjoyment  of  this  happy  con- 
dition but  the  fear  of  those  changes  to  which  even  the  most  stable 
of  human  devices  are  liable.  Legislation  and  policy,  though  the 
practice  of  generations,  may  be  changed  by  the  force  of  the  public 
opinion  that  created  them.,  and  this  is  itself  in  a  state  of  constant 
change.  We  must  look,  therefore,  to  the  expressions  of  public 
opinion,  wherever  we  can  find  them,  in  order  to  ascertain  the 


206  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

Spirit  which  actuates  a  people,  and  for  the  signs  of  the  changes 
that  come  over  it.  Nowhere  are  these  to  be  found  more  clearly 
and  with  greater  significance  than  in  those  writings  which,  taking 
such  facts  for  their  texts  as  existing  systems  and  statistics,  argue  in 
favor  of  a  new  state  of  affairs,  or,  at  least,  a  modification  of  the 
old.  They  express  the  spirit  and  designs  of  the  far-reaching  and 
earnest  men  who  direct  public  opinion,  and  in  an  age  when.  Par- 
liament being  closed,  the  projects  of  such  could  reach  the  popular 
mind  only  through  the  printed  page,  the  treatises  they  put  forth 
are  of  the  greatest  importance  to  us.  It  will  be  well,  then,  to  ob- 
serve the  drift  of  public  opinion  in  England  respecting  the  nature 
and  uses  of  the  colonies,  as  it  is  disclosed  in  the  peculiar  litera- 
ture to  which  the  Restrictive  System  gave  birth. 

The  expansion  of  trade  produced  by  the  Navigation  Act 
brought  to  the  light  in  England  the  science  to  which  the  name  of 
Political  Economy  has  been  given.  Forthwith  had  risen  two 
theories,  one  of  which  was  designated  as  the  Mercantile,  the  other 
as  the  Manufacturing  system.  The  first  was  founded  on  the  as- 
sumption that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  was  wealth,  and  there- 
fore, that  the  test  of  prosperity  is  whether  trade  brings  more  money 
into  the  country  than  it  takes  out.  If  more,  then  trade  is  pros- 
perous ;  and  the  degree  of  prosperity  is  measured  by  the  answer 
to  the  question.  How  much  more  ?  The  other  theory,  which  may 
also  be  called  the  Monopoly  theory,  assumed  that  trade  is  pros- 
perous only  when  it  can  be  made  profitable  ;  and  that  when  it  is 
not  profitable,  it  should  be  made  so  by  means  of  exclusive  privi- 
leges in  favor  of  the  seller.  The  first  class  of  economists  recog- 
nized the  consumer  as  a  factor  in  the  problem  to  be  solved  ;  the 
second  was  blind  to  his  existence  ;  for,  whereas  the  former  took 
trade  as  it  found  it,  the  latter  said  :  We  leave  trade  different  from 
what  we  found  it,  and  where  there  is  no  trade  we  force  one. 

From  these  two  crude  theories  have  arisen  the  great  schools  of 
Free  Trade  and  Protection,  which,  to-day,  the  world  over,  are 
dividing  administrative  political  economy  into  two  parties. 

The  early  English  writers  upon  this  subject  were  Thomas  Mun, 
Sir  Josiah  Child,  Sir  William  Petty,  Charles  Davenant,  Joshua 
Gee,  John  Ashley,  and  others  of  less  note,  all  of  whom  display 
the  spirit  of  the  English  commercial  classes  toward  colonies  in 
general  in  discussions  more  or  less  extended.     Their  conclusions^ 


EARLY  POLITICAL  ECONOMISTS.  20/ 

according  to  John  Adams,  may  be  summed  up  in  the  one  prin- 
ciple :  that  earth,  air,  and  sea,  all  colonies,  and  all  weaker  nations 
were  to  be  made  subservient  to  the  growth  of  the  British  navy 
and  marine,  which,  in  turn,  were  to  be  instruments  for  the  en- 
largement of  British  wealth,  British  commerce,  British  power,  and 
British  domination,  as  much  so  as  all  nations  and  things  were,  in 
time  past,  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  grandeur  of  Rome.' 

It  is  natural,  with  the  record  of  their  country's  prosperity  being 
the  record  of  monopoly,  and  with  the  East  India  Company  in  a 
flourishing  condition  then  before  their  eyes,  that  the  Act  of  Navi- 
gation should  appear  the  best,  as  it  was  the  latest,  monument  to 
British  thrift  and  foresight,  and  that  these  men  should  look  at 
trade  and  human  rights  from  the  standpoint  of  monopolists. 
Such  is  the  case. 

Child's  work  was  written  about  the  year  1677,  when  strict  exe- 
cution of  the  Act  of  Navigation  was  being  urged  and  insisted 
upon,  and  only  a  year  after  the  stock  of  the  East  India  Company 
had  been  doubled.  He  had  two  objects  in  view:  the  defence  and 
eulogy  of  corporate  monopoly,  and  the  defence  and  eulogy  of  na- 
tional monopoly.  In  short,  he  wrote  for  the  purpose  of  defend- 
ing the  East  India  Company,  and  of  urging  the  enforcement  of 
the  Act  of  Navigation.  In  doing  so  he  treats  of  the  relations 
existing  between  the  mother-country  and  her  colonies  in  general, 
and  also  of  those  between  the  government  and  the  colonies  which 
he  specifically  mentions.  No  writer  displays  a  greater  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Navigation  Act  than  Sir  Josiah,  nor  a  clearer  com- 
prehension of  its  scope  and  design.  He  discloses  with  perfect 
sincerity  the  motives  which  actuated  England  in  adopting  this 
measure,  and  as,  at  the  same  time,  he  exposes  with  ingenuous 
simplicity  the  view  taken  of  the  colonies  and  the  colonists  by  the 
commercial  classes  of  England,  his  work  may  be  safely  accepted  as 
truthfully  exhibiting  the  spirit  and  designs  of  those  classes,  at  the 
time  when  the  benefits  of  the  new  system  were  making  themselves 
felt,  and  when  the  merits  of  the  colonies  as  dominions  had  already 
made  way  for  their  value  as  feeders  of  trade. 

The  title  of  this  work  is,  "  A  New  Discourse  of  Trade  "  ;  its 
fourth  chapter  is  "Concerning  the  Act  of  Navigation,"  and  itd 
tenth  "Concerning  Plantations."    In  this  latter  chapter  the  knight 

*  "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  330,  340. 


208  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

lays  down  as  a  fundamental  proposition,  that  "all  colonies  and 
plantations  do  endamage  their  mother  kingdoms,  whereof  the 
trades  of  such  plantations  are  not  confined  by  severe  laws,  and 
good  executions  of  those  laws,  to  the  mother  kingdom."  The 
minor  premise,  "that  New  England  is  the  most  prejudicial  planta- 
tion to  the  kingdom  of  England,"  follows  on  the  next  page,  and 
the  sequitur  is  left  to  the  inference  of  the  reader.  How  that  in- 
ference was  supplied  by  the  New  Englanders,  may  be  seen  from 
the  one  attributed  to  James  Otis  by  John  Adams  :  "  And  those 
views,  designs,  and  objects  were,  to  annul  all  the  New  England 
charters,  and  they  were  but  three,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut ;  to  reduce  all  the  colonies  to  royal  governments, 
to  subject  them  all  to  the  supreme  domination  of  Parliament,  who 
were  to  tax  us  without  limitation,  who  would  tax  us  whenever  the 
crown  would  recommend  it,  which  crown  would  recommend  it 
whenever  the  ministry  for  the  time  being  should  please,  and  which 
ministry  would  please  as  often  as  the  West  India  planters  and 
North  American  governors,  crown  officers,  and  naval  commanders, 
should  solicit  more  fees,  salaries,  penalties,  and  forfeitures."* 

That  this  inference  was  justifiable,  so  far  as  the  reduction  of 
the  New  England  colonies  to  the  condition  of  mere  Parliamentary 
dependencies  is  concerned,  appears  from  the  work  itself.  In 
his  chapter  "Concerning  Plantations,"  Childs  institutes  the  in- 
quiry, what  kind  of  people  they  were  that  transported  themselves 
to  the  colonies.  The  answer  is  not  flattering  to  the  family  pride 
of  the  Americans.  New  England,  he  says,  owed  its  population 
to  "  a  sort  of  people  called  Puritans  "  who,  wearied  with  church 
censures  and  persecutions,  would  in  any  event  have  deserted  their 
country,  and  would  have  gone  to  Holland  and  Germany  had  there 
not  been  a  New  England  found  for  them.  As  for  Virginia  and 
Barbadoes,  they  were  peopled  at  first  by  a  sort  of  loose,  vagrant 
people,  vicious  and  destitute  of  means  to  live  at  home,  gathered 
up  about  the  streets  of  London  or  other  places,  and  who,  had 
there  been  no  English  foreign  plantation  in  the  world,  could  prob- 
ably never  have  lived  at  home,  but  must  have  come  to  be  hanged, 
or  starved,  or  died  untimely  of  those  miserable  diseases  that  pro- 
ceed from  want  and  vice,  or  have  sold  themselves  as  soldiers  to 
be  knocked  on  the  head,  or,  at  best,  by  begging  or  stealing  two 

*•'  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,"  x,  330. 


SIR  yOSIAH  CHILD.  209 

shillings  and  sixpence,  have  made  their  way  to  Holland  to  become 
servants  to  the  Dutch,  "who  refuse  none."  These  colonists, 
worthy  of  the  chain-gang,  the  galleys,  or  of  Botany  Bay,  were  re- 
inforced during  the  Parliamentary  war  by  the  worsted  party  who 
"  wanted  means  to  maintain  them  all  abroad  with  his  Majesty," 
and  great  numbers  of  Scotch  soldiers  after  Worcester  fight.  "An- 
other great  swarm  "  followed  "  when,  the  former  prevailing  party 
being  by  a  divine  hand  of  Providence  brought  under,  the  army 
disbanded."  "  The  constant  supply,"  continues  Child,  "that  the 
said  plantations  have  since  had,  hath  been  such  vagrant,  loose 
people  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  picked  up  especially  about 
the  streets  of  London  and  Westminster,  and  malefactors  con- 
demned for  crimes,  for  which,  by  the  law,  they  deserved  to  die ; 
and  some  of  those  people  called  Quakers,  banished  for  meeting  on 
pretence  of  religious  worship. 

"  Now,  if  from  the  premises  it  be  duly  considered  what  kind  of 
persons  those  have  been,  by  whom  our  plantations  have  at  all 
times  been  replenished,  I  suppose  it  will  appear,  that  such  they 
have  been,  and  under  such  circumstances,  that  if  his  Majesty  had 
had  no  foreign  plantations,  to  which  they  might  have  resorted, 
England,  however,  must  have  lost  them." 

The  knight  certainly  renders  it  very  plain,  if  the  truth  of  his 
premises  be  granted,  that  the  plantations  were  chiefly  instrumental 
in  saving  to  English  society  flocks  of  jailbirds,  who,  like  the 
Don's  "  honest  and  worthy  gentlemen,"  were  on  the  road  to  the 
gallows  ;  but  he  does  not  make  it  appear  so  clearly  why  England 
should  emulate  the  moral  obliquity  of  her  outcasts  by  treating 
them  as  they  had  already  treated  their  fellows.  His  effort  to  do 
so  involves  him  in  a  labyrinthine  tangle  of  logic,  at  which  the 
colonists  might  well  have  afforded  to  smile,  had  it  not  been  made 
the  basis  of  legislation  so  adverse  to  their  interests  and  their  rights 
as  to  render  serious  what  otherwise  would  have  been  accounted 
merely  fantastic.  The  following  is  his  style  of  ratiocination,  and, 
as  the  after  enactments  of  Parliament  showed,  that,  too,  of  Eng- 
land. 

Having  noticed  the  colonies  of  Virginia  and  Barbadoes  in  the 
manner  we  have  just  seen,  he  thus  proceeds  :  "  I  am  now  to 
write  of  a  people  whose  frugality,  industry,  and  temperance,  and 
the  happiness  of  whose  laws  and  institutions,  do  promise  to  them« 


2IO  CONSTirUriONAL  LIBERTY, 

selves  long  life,  with  a  wonderful  increase  of  people,  riches,  and 
power  ;  and  although  no  men  ought  to  envy  that  virtue  and  wis- 
dom in  others,  which  themselves  either  cannot  or  will  not  prac- 
tise, but  rather  to  commend  and  admire  it,  yet  I  think  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  good  man  i^rimarily  to  respect  the  welfare  of  his 
native  country.  And,  therefore,  though  I  may  offend  some  whom 
I  would  not  willingly  displease,  I  cannot  omit,  in  the  progress  of 
this  discourse,  to  take  notice  of  some  particulars,  wherein  Old 
England  suffers  diminution  by  the  growth  of  those  colonies  set- 
tled in  New  England,  and  how  that  plantation  differs  from  those 
more  southerly,  with  respect  to  the  gain  or  loss  of  this  kingdom  ; 
— namely":  i.  All  the  American  plantations,  except  New  Eng- 
land, produced  commodities  of  different  natures  from  those  of 
England,  whereas  New  England  produced  generally  the  same. 
These  also  took  some  fish,  which  was  prejudicial  to  the  English 
Newfoundland  trade  ;  they  traded  their  produce  with  the  British 
West  Indian  colonies  "  to  the  diminution  of  the  vent  of  those  com- 
modities from  this  kingdom ;  the  great  expanse  whereof  in  our 
West  India  plantations  would  soon  be  found  in  the  advance  of 
the  value  of  our  lands  in  England,  were  it  not  for  the  vast  and 
almost  incredible  supplies  those  colonies  have  from  New  Eng- 
land.* 2.  The  people  of  New  'EngX^.nd,  by  virtue  of  their  primi- 
five  charters,^  being  not  so  strictly  tied  to  the  observation  of  the 
laws  of  this  kingdom,  do  sometimes  assume  a  liberty  of  trading 
contrary  to  the  act  of  navigation,  by  reason  whereof  many  of  our 
American  commodities,  especially  tobacco  and  sugar,  are  trans- 
ported in  New  England  shipping,  directly  into  Spain  and  other 

*  How  tenacious  this  notion  was  in  the  English  mind,  is  shown  by  its  incor- 
poration into  the  preamble  of  the  Act  of  lo  and  ii  W.  III.,  c.  x.  The  idea, 
that  colonial  industry  meant  depression  of  English  real  estate,  was  almost 
ineradicable. 

'  The  passages  in  these  charters  operative  hereon  are  recited  in  that  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary,  1691,  as  follows  : — "  Whereas  King  James  I.  *  *  *  ^\^ 
grant  to  the  Council  at  Plymouth,  for  the  planting  and  governing  of  New  Eng- 
land, all  that  part  of  America,  from  the  40th  to  the  48th  degree  of  latitude,  and 
from  sea  to  sea,  together  with  all  lands,  waters,  fishings,  and  all  and  singular 
other  commodities,  jurisdictions,  royalties,  privileges,  franchises  and  pre-emi- 
nences, both  within  the  said  tract  of  land  upon  the  main,  and  also  within  the 
islands  and  seas  adjoining,  to  have  and  hold  all  *  *  *  yielding  to  the  king 
a  fifth  part  of  the  ore  of  gold  and  %\\s^x ,  for  andin  respect  of  all  and  all  manner 
of  duties,  demands,  and  services  whatsoever.'*  By  this  charter,  Massachusetts, 
New  Plymouth,  the  Province  of  Maine  and  Nova  Scotia  were  united  in  one 
province.  A  proviso  withheld  the  erection  of  any  colonial  court  of  admiralty, 
but  detailed,  at  large  the  fishing  rights. 


CHILD'S  POSTULA  TES.  2 1 1 

foreign  countries,  without  being  landed  in  England,  or  paying  any 
duty  to  his  Majesty^  which  is  not  only  loss  to  the  king,  and  a  preju- 
dice to  the  navigation  of  Old  England,  but  also  a  total  exclusion 
of  the  Old  English  merchant  ixom  the  vent  of  those  commodities 
in  those  ports  where  the  New  English  vessels  trade,  because  there 
being  no  custom  paid  on  those  commodities  in  New  England, 
and  a  great  custom  paid  upon  them  in  Old  England,  it  must 
necessarily  follow  that  the  New  English  merchant  will  be  able  to 
afford  his  commodity  much  cheaper  at  the  market  than  the  Old 
English  merchant ;  and  those  that  can  sell  cheapest,  will  infallibly 
engross  the  whole  trade,  sooner  or  later.  3.  Of  all  the  American 
plantations,  his  Majesty  hath  none  so  apt  for  the  building  of  ship- 
ping as  New  England,  nor  none  comparably  so  qualified  for 
breeding  of  seamen,  not  only  by  reason  of  the  natural  industry  of 
that  people,  but  principally  by  reason  of  their  cod  and  mackerel 
fisheries  ;  and,  in  my  poor  opinion,  there  is  nothing  more  prejudi- 
cial, and  i?t  prospect  more  dangerous  to  any  mother  kingdoin,  than 
the  incj-ease  of  shipping  in  her  colonies,  plantations,  and  provinces. 

"  To  conclude  this  chapter  and  to  do  right  to  that  most  indus- 
trious English  colony,  1  must  confess,  that  though  we  lose  by 
their  unlimited  trade  with  our  foreign  plantations,  yet  we  are 
very  great  gainers  by  their  direct  trade  to  and  from  Old  England  ; 
our  yearly  exportations  of  English  manufactures,  malt,  and  other 
goods,  from  hence  thither,  amounting,  in  my  opinion,  to  ten  times'*^ 
the  value  of  what  is  imported  from  thence  ;  which  calculation  1 
do  not  make  at  random,  but  upon  mature  consideration,  and,  per- 
adventure,  upon  as  much  experience  in  this  very  trade  as  any 
other  person  will  pretend  to  ;  and,  therefore,  whenever  a  refor- 
mation of  our  correspondency  in  trade  with  that  people  shall  be 
thought  on,  it  will,  in  my  poor  judgment,  require  great  tenderness 
and  very  serious  circumspection." 

Thus  the  knight,  who,  as  the  mouth-piece  of  the  classes  which, 
even  then,  under  the  operation  of  the  Navigation  Act,  had  risen 
to  the  control  of  the  legislation  of  Parliament  and  the  policy  of 
the  government,  gives  us  plainly  to  understand  what  the  disposi- 

*  Nearly  a  century  later,  Burke  said:  **  Are  not  these  schemists  well  apprised, 
that  the  colonists,  particularly  those  of  the  Northern  provinces,  import  from 
Great  Britain,  ten  times  more  than  they  send  in  return  10  us?"  "  Observ.  on 
the  Present  State  of  the  Nation." 


212  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

tion  of  those  classes  toward  the  colonies  is.  It  is  true  that  no 
hint  of  the  colonies  as  sources  of  revenue  is  given,  and  that  the 
light  in  which  they  are  placed  is  purely  a  commercial  one.  He 
has  a  grievance,  and  this  grievance  is,  that  there  still  remains  to 
the  colonies  some  direct  trade  with  foreign  nations,  which  Eng- 
land has  not  secured.  His  efforts  are  directed  solely  to  answer- 
ing the  double  question  :  How  shall  this  be  prevented,  and  Eng- 
land make  all  that  there  is  to  be  made  out  of  her  dependencies  ? 
and  so  long  as  the  discussion  is  kept  subordinate  to  this  question, 
and  the  spirit  which  prompts  it  is  confined  within  bounds  which 
do  not  encroach  upon  personal  rights,  the  colonists  need  be  ap- 
prehensive of  few  evil  results.  But  an  argument  which  makes  the 
alleged  debased  origin  of  a  people  and  the  present  good  qualities 
of  that  people  equally  detrimental  to  the  welfare  of  those  from 
whom  they  sprung  is  so  singularly  illogical  as  to  arouse  the  sus- 
picion that  it  contains  a  hidden  meaning.  That  there  may  be  no 
mistake  as  to  the  conclusions,  an  analysis  of  this  argument  is 
here  presented.     It  is  as  follows  : — 

Competition  injures  us  ;  New  England  offers  competition  ; 
therefore.  Old  England  suffers  diminution  by  the  growth  of  New 
England. 

The  people  of  New  England  undersell  us  in  the  British  West 
Indies  ;  by  this  underselling  there  is  a  diminution  of  the  vent  at 
home  :  therefore,  New  England  must  be  prevented  from  selling. 

By  virtue  of  their  charters,  the  New  Englanders  sell  to  Spain, 
which  is  a  foreign  nation,  without  paying  tribute  to  the  Old 
British  merchant ;  from  the  force  of  circumstances  the  New 
England  merchant  sells  to  foreign  nations  cheaper  than  the  Old 
British  merchant  can  :  therefore,  take  from  the  New  Englander 
this  advantage  by  making  him  pay  the  Old  British  merchant,  un- 
der the  Navigation  Act  and  in  spite  of  the  charters,  the  difference 
between  their  prices. 

So  far,  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  inexorable  logic  of  trade 
supports  Sir  Josiah,  and  that  he  strictly  pursues  it.  His  position, 
indeed,  is  nothing  more  than  this — by  the  Navigation  Act  and 
the  legislation  supplementary  to  it,  England  has  converted  her 
colonies  into  communities  of  consumers  of  English  manufactures. 
This  she  has  a  right  to  do,  and,  now  that  she  has  done  it,  any 
other  character   than  this  her   interest   cannot   permit  them   to 


CARTHAGO  DELENDA   EST.  21$ 

assume.  She  alone  of  the  British  family  is  to,  trade  with  her  colo- 
nies and  the  world,  and  any  competition  with  her  on  the  part  of 
any  member  of  the  family,  shall  not  be  tolerated.* 

With  this  position,  which  is  strictly  a  logical  result  of  the  Act 
of  Navigation,  the  colonies  could  find  little  fault.  It  does  not  en- 
croach upon  their  rights  as  dominions,  and  it  leaves  their  charac- 
ter as  commercial  dependencies  as  they  themselves  had  accepted 
it  ;  only  more  strictly  defined,  and  that  is  all.  Unfortunately, 
however.  Child  goes  further,  and  puts  forth  two  propositions,  in 
one  of  which,  it  may  be  said,  he  sets  up  virtue  against  itself,  and 
in  the  other,  leaves  open  to  inference  the  possibility  of  the  colo- 
nies being  deprived  of  any  other  character  than  that  of  bare  do- 
minions. His  disregard  of  charters  as  barriers  to  the  advance  of 
trade  must  already  have  struck  the  observer,  but,  to  complete  the 
analysis,  the  following  are  the  two  propositions  here  alluded  to  : — 

Frugality,  temperance,  and  industry  strengthen  a  competitor ; 
New  England  is  a  competitor  having  these  virtues  :  therefore,  "a 
reformation  of  our  correspondency  in  trade  with  that  people  [is 
to  be]  thought  on." 

No  plantations  are  so  apt  for  ship-building  and  breeding  of  sea- 
men as  New  England  ;  nothing  is  more  prejudicial  to  a  mother- 
kingdom  than  a  ship-building  and  seamen-breeding  plantation  : 
therefore — what  ?  Destroy  these  plantations,  if  necessary  .^  The 
knight  left  his  sequitur  open,  but  Otis  seemed  to  think  this  infer- 
ence a  natural  one  ;  though  the  most  charitable  deduction  would 
be,  the  repression,  by  some  means  or  other,  of  New  England's 
ship-building  and  marine. 

These  propositions  go  too  far  ;  and  one  of  them,  at  least,  steps 
beyond  the  proper  limits  of  the  subject  to  enter  a  field  dangerous 
to  public  morality.  Assuredly  that  spirit  is  subject  to  condemna.- 
tion  which  makes  the  virtues  of  frugality,  temperance,  and   in- 

'  "  Trade  is  our  object  with  them,  and  they  should  be  encouraged.  *  *  * 
If  they  will  not  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  this  country  ;  especially  if  they  would 
withdraw  themselves  from  the  laws  of  trade  and  navigation,  of  which  I  see  too 
many  symptoms,  as  much  of  an  American  as  I  am,  they  have  not  a  more  de- 
termined opposer  than  they  will  find  in  me.  They  must  be  subordinate.  In 
all  laws  relating  to  trade  and  navigation  especially,  this  is  the  mother  country, 
they  are  the  children  ;  they  must  obey  and  we  prescribe.  It  is  necessary  ;  for 
in  these  cases  between  two  countries  so  circumstanced  as  these  two  are,  there 
must  be  obedience,  there  must  be  dependence.  And  if  you  do  not  make  laws 
for  them,  let  me  tell  you,  my  lords,  they  do,  they  will,  they  must  make  laws  for 
you."     Lord  Chatham  in  1770. 


214  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

dustry,  reasons  for  changing  the  reLitions  of  the  offspring  with  its 
parent  in  a  manner  detrimental  to  the  former  ;  and  it  is  not  say- 
ing too  much,  that  the  mind  that  can  see  in  honest  thrift  and  pros- 
perity elements  hostile  to  the  well-being  of  the  family  to  which 
their  possessors  belong,  is  already  prepared  to  view  with  calm- 
ness the  extinction  of  this  thrift  and  prosperity.  If  New  Eng- 
land was  to  be  crippled  for  being  frugal,  temperate,  and  indus- 
trious, are  we  to  conclude  that  the  other  colonies,  who  are  repre- 
sented as  vicious,  should  be  encouraged  in  prodigality,  debauch- 
ery and  lazmess  ?     Virtue  is  thus  set  up  against  herself. 

It  is  not  within  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  discuss  the  prin- 
ciples expounded  in  Child's  treatise,  nor  to  criticize  theories,  many 
of  which  time  and  experience  have  long  since  buried  out  of  sight. 
We  have  only  to  extract  from  its  pages  the  drift  of  public  opinion 
disclosed  by  them,  the  disposition  toward  the  colonies  entertained 
by  the  commercial  classes  of  England,  the  designs  of  these  classes 
upon  colonial  trade,  and  the  spirit  which  animated  the  imperial 
legislature  in  its  treatment  of  colonial  affairs.  By  doing  so,  we 
do  what  the  observing  colonist  did  :  we  note  the  same  evidences 
of  change  in  public  opinion  which  struck  him,  and,  by  subjecting 
ourselves  to  the  impressions  he  received,  we  render  clear  what 
otherwise  might  appear  doubtful  in  the  measures  he  adopted  for 
the  security  of  his  interests. 

When,  then,  we  observe  persistent  defamation  of  the  colonists, 
and  the  suggestion  that  their  territories  be  made  receptacles  of 
the  outcast  of  British  society^;  when  we  behold  virtues  them- 
selves made  use  of  as  reasons  for  repressing  colonial  prosperity  ; 
and  when  we  see  contemptuous  disregard  of  the  charters,  we 
have  seen  enough  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  the  treatise  was 
not  written  in  a  spirit  friendly  to  the  colonies,  but  that  it  dis- 
closed designs  as  threatening  to  the  stabiHty  of  their  institutions 
as  they  were  to  their  trade.  In  short,  we  are  brought  to  the  un- 
welcome conclusion,  that,  under  the  effect  of  the  Navigation  Act, 
the  colonies  already  existed  for  no  other  purpose,  in  the  eyes  of 
Englishmen,  than  as  conveniences  whose  well-being  depended  solely 
upon  the  manner  in  which  they  effected  the  purposes  of  commerce, 
— a  conclusion  which  hands  over  colonial  prosperity  to  the  doubt- 

*  This  work  advocated  the  enforced  emigration  of  paupers  and  convicts  to  the 
colonies. 


JOSHUA    GEE.  215 

ful  chances  of  a  trade  over  which  it  has  no  direction,  and  colonial 
institutions  to  the  mercy  of  men  whose  notions  of  freedom  are 
measured  by  the  effect  it  produces  upon  the  balances  of  their 
accounts. 

The  colonists  did  not  exaggerate  the  importance  of  Child's  dis- 
course. His  position  as  an  East  India  Company  director  war- 
ranted the  inference  that  the  sentiments  he  uttered  were  those  of 
the  monopolists  and  of  the  trading  classes.  They  certainly  must 
have  been  those  of  the  government ;  for,  to  mark  approval  of 
them,  Child  was  knighted  the  year  after  the  publication  of  his 
book,  and  henceforth  all  doubt  v/as  dissipated  by  Parliamentary 
enactments  conforming  to  his  assertion — that  colonies  endamaged 
the  mother-country,  unless  their  trade  was  "confined  by  severe 
laws  and  good  execution  of  those  laws." 

Child's  book  has  the  merit  of  giving  the  public  the  first  expo- 
sition it  had  of  the  Restrictive  System,  of  which  the  Navigation 
Act  was  the  foundation  ;  its  mischief  lay  in  the  acrimonious  dis- 
position it  bears  toward  the  colonies,  in  inoculating  the  commercial 
classes  with  the  notion  that  the  colonies  were  feeders  to  British 
commerce  and  nothing  more,  and  in  spreading  throughout  all 
ranks  an  indifference  to,  if  not  a  contempt  of,  colonial  rights. 
Being  the  first  work  of  the  kind  that  appeared,  it  had  the  unfortu- 
nate effect  of  setting  the  note  which  those  who  came  after  were 
to  take  up  and  prolong.  It  gave  direction  to  the  drift  of  public 
opinion,  which  was  to  find  expression  in  the  works  of  Gee  and 
Ashley.  It  did  not,  however,  consider  the  colonies  in  any  other 
light  than  that  of  commerce. 

The  next  generation  produced  Joshua  6^^<r,  the  man  upon  whom 
fell  Child's  mantle.  Sir  Josiah's  fondest  hop>es  had  been  more 
than  realized  by  the  Acts  of  Trade  and  Navigation,  and  the 
righteousness  of  the  Restrictive  System  had  been  demonstrated 
by  success.  The  country  had  become  wealthy.  Gee  thought 
nothing  could  be  more  natural  and  appropriate  than  the 
"  principles  "  of  Child,  and  he  warmly  coincided  with  him  in 
his  view  of  colonial  population  ;  for  he  quotes  with  appro- 
bation the  latter's  scurrility  concerning  the  people  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Barbadoes.  This  book,  which  was  entitled  :  "  The 
Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain  Considered,"  *  takes  up 

'  Fourth  Edition,  London,  1738. 


2l6  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  thread  where  Child  dropped  it,  and  pursues  the  same  course. 
Gee  is  the  disciple,  and  Child  the  master  ;  but  Gee  outruns  his 
leader  in  one  respect,  and  has  thereby  attained  the  notoriety  of 
being  the  first  author  of  repute  who  considered  the  colonies 
sources  of  revenue  as  well  as  of  private  gain.  This  is  a  step  for- 
ward, and  since  the  importance  of  it  cannot  be  exaggerated,  it 
may  be  well  at  this  point  to  set  forth  the  reasons  why  such  im- 
portance is  so  great. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  Act  of  Navigation,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  colonies  had  had  added  to  their  condition  or  character  of 
dominions  that  of  communities  for  the  consumption  of  British  manu- 
factures and  the  feeding  of  British  trade.  It  was  in  this  twofold 
character  that  they  now  stood  before  the  world,  and  this  character 
had  been  fully  accepted  by  them  as  the  true  one.  As  the  Restric- 
tive System  expanded  and  filled  the  field  of  trade,  its  augmenting 
importance  dwarfed  every  thing  with  which  it  was  contrasted. 
For  the  nurture  and  expansion  of  this  system  Parliament  sat,  and 
armies  and  fleets  marched  and  sailed,  and  England  itself  assumed 
a  commercial  character  such  as  no  other  people,  but  the  Vene- 
tians and  the  Dutch,  had  ever  taken  upon  themselves.  Every 
thing  was  regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  trade,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  in  the  eyes  of  a  people  who  subordinated  the 
energies  of  their  own  government  to  the  requirements  of  thrift, 
the  political  character  of  their  dependencies  should  be  lost  in 
their  commercial  character  ;  that  their  quality  of  dominions  served 
no  other  purpose  than  to  make  them  more  subsidiary  to  the  uses 
of  trade,  and  that,  indeed,  the  colonies  were  factories  and  nothing 
more.  We  have  also  seen,  however,  that,  though  this  notion 
might  possess  the  English  people,  it  could  not,  from  the  nature 
of  things,  be  altogether  true ;  and  that  the  view  taken  of  colonial 
relations  and  colonial  constitution  by  the  colonists  themselves, 
gave  the  first  and  all-important  place  to  their  character  of  do- 
minions. In  fact,  there  had  grown  up  in  the  colonies  a  positive, 
free,  local  self-government  which  had  every  element  of  stability 
in  it  save  one — the  element  of  constitutional  guaranty.  This 
local  self-government,  we  have  further  seen,  had  been  a  very 
great  inducement  to  colonization,  and  was  regarded  by  the  col- 
onists as  the  most  important  compensation  they  had  for  the  re- 
striction of  their  trade.     It  was  deemed  by  them  amply  sufficient, 


FACTORIES  AND  DOMINIONS,  21/ 

and  of  such  value,  indeed,  that,  upon  any  question  arising  be- 
tween these  characters,  further  restriction  was  at  once  accepted 
as  the  price  for  the  continuance  of  the  right  to  govern  them- 
selves. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  between  the  character  of  factory  and 
the  character  of  self-governing  dominion  there  is  so  great  a  dif- 
ference that  they  have  really  nothing  in  common.  The  latter  was 
dependent  upon  the  former  in  the  same  way  that  the  compensa- 
tion depends  upon  the  thing  to  be  compensated  for  ;  the  colo- 
nist's freedom  as  a  citizen  depended  upon  his  subjection  as  a 
trader,  inasmuch  as  this  was  the  price  he  paid  for  that,  and  that 
was  the  compensation  he  received  for  this.  Nothing,  however,  in 
the  two  characters  was  of  the  same  nature.  They  were  absolutely 
separate  and  distinct,  and  one  was  purely  economical  while  the 
other  was  purely  political.  Now,  imposts  for  revenue  is  taxation, 
and  taxation  is  a  thing  political.  It  is  an  essential  of  direct 
government,  and,  where  not  imposed  by  a  people  upon  itself,  ad- 
mits a  right  in  a  superior  to  exact  it  of  an  inferior.  Such  an 
admission  once  made,  the  character  of  dominion  would  be  at  an 
end  ;  for  the  term  dominion  implies  autonomy,  and  autonomy 
has  no  existence  where  one  people  is  governed  by  another,  as  is 
the  case  where  taxation  is  ordained  by  others  than  those  from 
whom  it  is  to  be  collected.*  Not  one  of  the  thirteen  colonies  was 
attached  to  either  of  the  three  realms  of  England,  Scotland,  or 
Ireland,  for  whom,  under  the  Act  of  Union,  the  British  Parliament 
made  laws  :  their  legislation,  therefore,  had  to  be  enacted  by 
themselves,  and  this  was  being  their  own  masters.  Any  attempt, 
therefore,  to  make  the  colonies  sources  of  revenue  was  an  invasion 


*  "  The  Commons  of  America,  represented  in  their  several  assemblies,  have 
ever  been  in  possession  of  the  exercise  of  this,  their  constitutional  right,  of  giving 
and  granting  their  own  money.  They  would  have  been  slaves  if  they  had  not 
enjoyed  it.  At  the  same  time,  this  kingdom,  as  the  supreme  governing  and 
legislative  power,  has  always  bound  the  colonies  by  her  laws,  by  her  regula- 
tions and  restrictions  in  trade,  in  navigation,  in  manufactures,  in  every  thing, 
except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  consent. 
Here  I  would  draw  the  line.  Qtiam  ultra  citraque  nequit  consistere  rectum"— 
Pitt  "On  Stamp  Act."     Polit.  Deb.  7. 

" we  may  bind  then    trade,  confine  their  i,i,u,nufactures,   and  exercise 

every /tf«/<rr  what.soever,  except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of  their  pockets 
without  their  consent." — Ibid.,  18. 

•*  The  authority  of  Parliament  was  allowed  to  be  valid  in  all  laws,  except  such 
as  should  lay  internal  taxes.  It  was  never  disputed  in  laying  duties  to  regu- 
late commerce." — Benjamin  Franklin,  "  Ex.  Com.  on  Repeal  of  Stamp  Act." 


2l8  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

of  their  political  condition  and  an  attempt  upon  theli  existence 
as  dominions  ;  and  the  destruction  of  this  character  would  in- 
volve the  destruction  of  their  right  to  local  self-government,  a 
right  which,  they  maintained,  was  theirs  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stance and  solemn  grant,  and  one  now  confirmed  by  the  operation 
of  time  and  by  the  uninterrupted  recognition  of  the  grantor. 

The  mere  facts,  that  the  colonists  assumed  such  a  right,  and 
that  any  proposition  to  consider  their  provinces  as  sources  of 
revenue  touched  the  vitality  of  their  autonomy,  are  enough  to  ex- 
plain their  alarm  at  the  bare  suggestion  of  such  a  thing. 

This  alarming  proposition  is  the  one  made  by  Joshua  Gee,  and 
the  colonists  would  have  been  blind  indeed,  if  they  had  not  ac- 
cepted it  as  evidence  of  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  public  opinion 
in  England  to  take  an  aggressive  attitude  toward  the  colonies. 
As  the  government  had  shown  its  approval  of  Child's  principles 
by  knighting  the  author,  so  this  work  received  the  marked  testi- 
mony of  its  appreciation  ;  for,  when  the  second  attempt  to  force 
a  revenue  system  upon  the  colonies  was  made,  and  the  govern- 
ment was  ransacking  archives  and  libraries  for  justification,  a 
second  edition  was  put  into  the  market,  bearing  the  timely  date 
of  1767.  If,  as  it  was  openly  asserted  at  the  time,  this  was  done 
by  certain  friends  and  members  of  the  administration,  the  con- 
clusion is  a  strong  one,  that  the  government  had  at  least  adopted 
Gee's  suggestion,  if  it  had  not,  in  the  first  instance,  inspired  it. 

Any  doubts  of  the  suggestion  being  acceptable  to  the  British 
public  are  sought  to  be  dispelled  by  the  editor,  who  informs  us 
that  "  this  valuable  treatise  has  for  many  years  been  scarce, 
though  strongly  recommended  by  the  best  judges  and  writers  on 
trade."  That  "  the  principles  upon  which  it  was  written  continue 
with  little  variation,"  there  is  hardly  need  of  asserting.  The  eager- 
ness with  which  the  public  caught  at  the  suggestion,  betrayed  its 
readiness  to  make  it  an  accomplished  fact,  and  the  multiplication 
of  the  Acts  of  Trade  and  the  occupation  of  every  foot  of  colonial 
ground  by  their  provisions,  showed  that  Parliament  was  ready  to 
burst  through  the  bounds  set  by  its  own  Act  of  Navigation. 
Since  then  there  had  been  nothing  done  to  counteract  the  poison, 
and  the  conclusion  is  forcible,  that  the  principles  upon  which  this 
book  was  written  had  continued  with  little  variation  to  affect  pub- 
lic opinion. 


JOHN   ASHLEY.  219 

Thus  these  two  writers  betray  the  spirit  which  actuated  the 
British  public  in  its  dealings  with  the  colonies,  and  foreshadow  the 
great  change  which  was  at  last  attempted  by  the  Stamp  Act.  This 
spirit  shows  itself  persistent  and  aggressive,  and  never  more  so 
than  in  the  writings  of  John  Ashley. 

This  writer  came  to  the  front  during  the  reign  of  George  II.,  in  a 
work  entitled  "  Memoirs  and  Considerations  concerning  the  Trade 
and  Revenues  of  the  British  Colonies  in  America,  with  Proposals 
for  rendering  those  Colonies  more  Beneficial  to  Great  Britain." 
It  will  not  fail  to  catch  the  notice  of  the  reader  that  the  word 
Revenue  is  here  boldly  connected  with  the  word  Trade  ;  its  con- 
nection with  the  latter  part  of  this  ominous  title  conveys  a  still 
more  sinister  disposition.  The  great  point,  in  fact,  in  Ashley's  treat- 
ise is  the  advisability  of  colonial  taxation  for  revenue^  and  he  dwells 
with  ungracious  energy  upon  the  manner  and  the  means  by  which 
it  can  be  effected.*  He  is  not  one  of  those  who  sit  down  and  cry 
out  for  Hercules  to  come  and  help  them.  He  disdains  the  en- 
tangled logic  of  Child,  and  accepting  that  master's  ipse-dixits  as 
proven,  busies  himself  only  with  their  application.  For  him,  as 
with  Sir  Josiah,  charters  are  no  barriers  to  the  enforcement  of  Par- 
liamentary enactments,  and  statutes  being  all-sufficient,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done  but  to  execute  them. 

Here,  in  the  literature  bearing  upon  this  subject  from  1677  to 
1767,  a  period  of  ninety  years,  we  have  the  feelings  and  motives 
which  actuated  three  generations  of  Englishmen,  and  the  princi- 
ples which  governed  them  in  their  dealings  with  their  colonies.  In 
a  word,  we  find  disclosed  in  the  writings  of  the  times  the  public 
opinion  of  England  respecting  the  nature  of  the  colonies  and  their 
relations  to  the  mother-country  ;  and  we  find  them,  too,  set  forth 
in  such  a  way  that  there  can  be  no  mistaking  the  drift  of  that 
opinion.  There  can  be  no  exaggeration,  then,  in  saying  that  the 
sentiment  which  slighted  the  justly  acquired  franchises  of  genera- 
tions and  the  sanctity  of  charters,  was  not  friendly  to  the  political 
constitution  of  the  American  dependencies." 

^  See/£7j/. 

'  "  If  any  man  of  the  present  age  can  read  these  authors  and  not  feel  his 
feelings,  manners,  and  principles  shocked  and  insulted,  I  know  not  of  what 
stuff  he  is  made.  Alt  I  can  say  is,  that  I  read  them  all  in  my  youth,  and  that  I 
never  read  one  of  them  without  being  set  on  fire." — John  Adams,  "  Life  and 
Works,"  X,  336.  And  see  "  The  Political  and  Commercial  Works  of  Charles 
Davenant,"  ii,  Discourse  3,  *'Ou  the  Plantation  Trade." 


220  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  policy  of  mother-countries 
toward  their  colonies  should  be  generous,  but  only  that  it  should 
be  just.  In  order  to  ensure  that  justice,  and  to  define  the  relations 
existing  between  the  parties  with  clearness  and  distinctness,  are 
two  great  reasons  why  charters  are  given  by  the  parent  state  to 
its  offspring.  These  charters  define  the  rights  secured  thereby 
to  the  colonists,  and  they  bind  the  mother-country  to  observe 
them.  As  it  is  the  interest  of  the  latter  to  extend  her  possessions, 
the  franchises  are  construed  as  inducements  to  emigration,  which, 
it  is  therefore  presumed,  would  not  occur  without  them.  Hence 
it  is  that,  although  the  enlargement  of  the  kingdom's  bounds  and 
the  enhancement  of  its  welfare  are  natural  obligations  under  which 
the  subject  rests,  the  learned  consider  the  charters  to  be  contracts, 
notwithstanding  no  such  naked  contract  can  be  technically  said  to 
exist  between  the  sovereign  and  the  subject.^     Practically,  how- 

^  a.  "  This  pretended  grant  is  but  an  acknowledgment  of  your  antecedent  right 
by  nature  and  English  liberty.  You  have  no  powtr  or  authority  to  alienate  it. 
It  was  granted,  or  rather  acknowledged,  to  your  successors  and  posterity  as  well 
as  to  you,  and  any  cessions  you  could  make  would  be  null  and  void  in  the  sight 
of  God  and  all  reasonable  men." — "  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,"  x,  355. 

b.  "  Although  the  crown  might  not  have  a  right  to  grant  such  exclusive  privi- 
leges, yet  the  grants  having  once  been  made,  and  the  colonists  having  settled 
upon  the  faith  of  them,  they  doubtless  thereby  acquire  a  sanction  and  an  au- 
thority which  nothing  but  the  most  urgent  Necessity  can  justly  alter.  Though 
wrongly  given,  they  are  rightly  established,  and  it  would  be  much  more  wrong 
to  take  them  away." — "  A  Short  View  of  the  New  England  Colonies,"  by 
Israel  Mauduit,  4th  ed.,  7.  Mauduit  wrote  in  defence  of  the  government's 
conduct  toward  Massachusetts  :  his  testimony,  therefore,  to  the  contract  nature 
of  the  charters,  being  in  spite  of  his  feelings,  acquires  extraordinary  weight. 

c.  "  I  think  it  is  plain,  if  the  crown  resumes  the  charters,  it  will  take  away  th< 
whole  it  gave,  and  deprive  the  patentees  of  the  only  recompense  they  were  to  have 
for  their  toil  and  faiigue,  which  they  thought  to  have  conveyed  safe  to  their  pos- 
terity. Could  they  have  imagined  this,  could  they  have  foreseen  that  their  priv- 
ileges were  such  transitory  things  as  to  last  no  longer  than  their  work  should  be 
done  and  their  settlement  completed,  they  had  never  engaged  in  so  hazardous  and 
difficult  an  enterprise.  They  would  never  have  departed  from  their  native  land, 
being  neither  criminals  nor  necessitous  ;  and  those  countries  which  have  since 
added  so  much  to  the  wealth  and  greatness  of  the  crown,  might  have  bet  n  a  barren 
wilderness  to  this  day  ;  or  what  is  worse,  and  more  probable,  might  hnve  been 
filled  with  French  colonies,  whereby  France  would  have  reigned  sole  mistress  of 
North  America." — Dummer's  ''Defence  of  the  New  England  Charters,"  20,  21. 

d.  *'  The  original  contract  between  the  king  and  the  fust  planters  there,  was  a 
royal  promise  in  behalf  of  the  nation,  and  which  till  latelyit  was  never  c[uestioned 
but  the  king  had  a  power  to  make,  that,  if  the  adventurers  would  at  their  own 
cost  and  charge,  and  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  every  thing  dear  to  them, 
purchase  a  new  world,  subdue  a  wilderness,  and  thereby  enlarge  the  king's 
dominions,  they  and  their  posterity  should  enjoy  all  the  rights,  liberties,  and 
privileges  of  his  Majesty's  natural  born  subjects  within  tlie  realm." — Extract 
from  a  "  Letter  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Mass.  Bay  to  their  Agent, 
Dennys  de  Berdt."  4,  5.     Lond.   1770. 


MOTIVE   OF  COLONIAL  REGULATION',  221 

ever,  they  are  so  far  contracts  that  even  men  like  Child  admitted 
their  existence  as  such,  and  one  would  naturally  expect  from  an 
element  so  dependent  upon  contracts  as  trade  is,  some  respect  for 
them.  Not  a  trace  of  it,  however,  is  to  be  found  in  the  works  dis- 
cussed ;  and  it  is  only  too  apparent  that  the  British  merchant,  for 
whose  interest  the  Restrictive  System  was  created,  looked  upon  a 
colony  with  no  more  humane  feeling  than  that  with  which  Le 
Sage's  grandee  looked  upon  Mexico. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  legislation  of  Parliament,  to  which  our 
next  steps  should  naturally  incline  us,  it  may  be  well,  at  this  point, 
to  revert  to  the  system  which  has  already  been  unveiled  by  the 
enactments  and  the  treatises  just  discussed,  and  draw  therefrom 
some  further  considerations,  especially  such  as  affect  the  colonial 
relations  with  the  mother-country  and  the  policy  it  imposed  upon 
the  government. 

The  growth,  then,  of  English  commerce  and  the  encouragement 
of  English  manufacture,  was  the  avowed  object  of  the  colonial 
policy  of  Great  Britain.  The  whole  aim  and  scope  of  her  legisla- 
tion, as  it  was  the  first  and  last  aim  of  her  government,  was  to  make 
the  colonies  feeders  to  British  trade.  It  was  for  this,  that,  coeval 
with  the  re-enactment  of  the  Navigation  Act,  a  Board  of  Trade  for 
the  colonies  was  established,  and  it  was  for  this  that  the  Acts  of 
Trade  followed  thick  and  fast  ;  and  so  emphatically  was  this  the 
end  and  being  of  the  colonies,  that  Lord  Chatham,  than  whom 
none  knew  better  the  commercial  nature  and  policy  of  Great 
Britain,  declared  in  Parliament,  that,  were  he  to  have  his  way,  he 
would  not  permit  them  to  manufacture  so  much  as  a  hob-nail. 

Trade  being  the  motive,  the  Act  of  Navigation  was  the  corner- 
stone upon  which  was  built  the  whole  policy  of  Great  Britain 
toward  her  colonies.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  policy  con- 
sisted in  nothing  else  than  what  would  give  effect  to  this  enact- 

e.  '*  The  American  charters  are  of  a  higher  nature,  and  stand  on  a  better 
foot,  than  the  corporations  in  England.  For  these  latter  were  granted  on  im- 
provements already  made,  and  therefore  were  acts  of  mere  grace  and  favor  in 
the  crown  ;  whereas  the  former  were  given  as  premiums  for  services  to  be  per- 
formed, and  therefore  are  to  be  considered  as  grants  upon  a  valuable  considera- 
tion, which  adds  weight  and  strength  to  their  title.  To  increase  the  nation's 
commerce  and  enlarge  her  dominions,  must  be  allowed  a  work  of  no  little  merit, 
if  we  consider  the  hardships  to  which  the  adventurers  were  exposed  ;  or  the 
expense  in  making  their  settlements  :  or,  lastly,  the  great  advantages  thence 
accruing  to  the  crown  and  nation." — Dumraer's  "  Defence,"  etc.,  ii,  12. 


222  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

ment,  and  that  it  was  contained  in  the  simple  term,  the  Restrictive 
System.  This  system  was  purely  artificial.  It  contemplated  that 
all  American  products  were  to  go  to  England  in  the  first  state,  or 
raw,  and  that  nothing  was  to  return  thence  but  what  was  in  the 
last  state,  or  finished.  This  was  the  controlling  principle  which 
made  the  entire  system  of  colonial  regulation  restrictive.  The 
government  was  not  slow  in  reflecting  popular  desire,  and  the 
cabinets,  seeking  popularity  where  it  could  easiest  be  found, 
were,  one  after  another,  so  possessed  with  the  rage  for  regulation, 
that  it  wo\ild  seem  as  if  no  minister  could  come  into  office  or  go 
out  of  it,  without  adding  something  to  the  existing  restriction. 
This  principle  of  commercial  monopoly,  says  Edmund  Burke,  runs 
through  no  less  than  twenty-nine  acts  of  Parliament,  during  the 
period  which,  beginning  in  1660,  terminated  in  the  unhappy  year 
of  1764' :  the  period  heretofore  referred  to  as  the  one  in  which 
monopoly  had  passed  from  private  hands  to  the  public,  from  cour- 
tiers to  the  people. 

Whatever  the  motive,  then,  which  founded  these  colonies,  the 
enlargement  of  English  trade  and  manufacture  was  what  changed 
the  relations  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother-country  and  imposed  a 
new  character  upon  them  ;  and  it  was  this,  too,  which  directed 
the  imperial  policy  in  the  control  of  them.  Massachusetts  may 
have  owed  its  existence  to  motives  purely  religious,  Georgia  to 
those  purely  humane,  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania  to  those 
both  religious  and  humane  ;  nevertheless,  be  the  sentiments  that 
brought  them  into  life  what  they  may,  those  sentiments  were  con- 
fined entirely  within  the  bosoms  of  their  founders  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  colonies.  They  had  no  place  anywhere  else  ;  they 
had  no  force  to  increase  or  decrease  their  political  credit  with 
their  rulers ;  they  were  not  such  as  relaxed  their  duty  of  alle- 
giance, nor  such  as  entitled  them  to  the  greater  regard  of  the 
crown  ;  and,  in  brief,  they  were  not  such  political  forces  as  should 
modify  in  any  respect  the  natural  relations  existing  between  all 
colonies  alike  and  the  parent.  By  their  natural  submission  to 
parental  control  and  their  dependence  on  the  imperial  power  for 
protection,  the  colonists  admitted  to  the  world  their  existence 
as  English  colonies,  their  territories  to  be  parts  of  the  British 
empire,  and  themselves  to  be  British  subjects.  This  done,  ac- 
^  *'  Speech  on  American  Taxation." 


RESTRICTION  NOT  CENSURABLE.  223 

quiescence  to  British  rule  became  a  duty  which  could  not  be 
absolved  by  mere  whim  or  caprice,  or  by  the  simple  fact  that 
it  had  become  onerous.  Nothing  but  a  violation  by  the  parent 
of  the  original  compact  could  justify  a  revolt, — a  violation  such 
as  making  the  Restrictive  System  so  exacting  as  to  render  life 
burdensome,  or  threatening  the  vitality  of  the  local  self-govern- 
ment. In  either  of  these  cases  the  consideration  of  the  contract 
would  be  destroyed,  and  the  resistance  of  the  injured  party 
even  to  revolt  would  be  justified.  But,  before  that  stage  is 
reached,  it  must  be  conceded,  that  the  parent  has  a  right,  nay, 
that  it  is  her  solemn  duty  to  regard  her  interests  as  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  her  policy,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  her  offspring  not 
only  to  acquiesce  in  such  action  but  to  further  it  :  the  more  so, 
as  in  a  natural  and  healthy  state  of  society,  what  is  the  interest 
of  one  is  likewise  the  interest  of  the  other.  So  far  these  rules  of 
action  apply  to  the  case  in  hand  in  purity  and  simplicity,  but 
beyond  this  point  they  do  not  ;  for  growth  and  development 
affect  the  relations  of  colonies  to  the  mother-country  as  growth 
and  development  modify  those  existing  between  the  parent  and 
child,  and  time  inexorably  brings  along  with  it  the  changes  which 
divide  the  responsibility  between  those,  for  one  of  whom  it  re- 
stricts the  exercise  of  control,  while  for  the  other  it  enlarges  the 
enjoyment  of  independence. 

But,  while  in  the  condition  of  childhood,  of  pupilage,  it  is  un- 
deniable that  the  protected  should  yield  acquiescence  to  her 
whose  protection  is  still  invoked  ;  and,  as  the  parent  has  a 
perfect  right  to  plant  colonies  for  commerce,  for  defence,  for 
relief  from  redundant  population,  in  short,  from  any  proper 
motive,  and  even  change  that  motive  as  the  contingencies  of  ex- 
istence may  demand,  England  cannot  justly  be  censured  for  fos- 
tering colonial  growth  in  the  interest  of  what  was  her  very  life, 
her  commerce.  All  censure  must  be  reserved  for  the  way  in 
which  this  policy  was  enforced,  and  the  excess  to  which  it  was 
carried. 

Nor  can  it  be  urged  that  the  colonists  were  compelled  to  settle- 
ment by  force,  or  were  entrapped  therein  by  false  pretences.  As 
has  already  been  seen,  the  English  colonies  were  not  directly 
planted  by  the  government,  like  the  ancient  colonies,  or  those  of 
France  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  lugubrious  description  of  Child 


224  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

and  the  vagabondizing  schemes  of  Gee,  the  mass  of  colonists 
gathered  together  on  these  shores,  were  not  so  much  expelled 
by  outraged  society  as  they  were  attracted  by  the  hope  of  gain." 
Even  the  Puritans  who  sought  New  England,  and  the  Catholics 
who  founded  Maryland,  were  not  ejected  from  their  native  land. 
The  settlers,  therefore,  who  established  these  colonies  cannot  be 
said  to  have  done  so  under  compulsion,  and,  if  they  were  exercis- 
ing volition  in  this  respect,  much  more  were  those  who,  inspired 
by  the  hope  of  bettering  their  condition,  continued  the  unbroken 
stream  of  immigration  long  after  this  policy  had  been  proclaimed 
to  the  world.  These  came  from  choice,  with  their  eyes  open, 
with  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  policy  which  actuated  the  govern- 
ment toward  its  colonies,  with  a  full  comprehension  of  the  Navi- 
gation Act,  and  with  enduring  loyalty  in  their  hearts.  It  was,  in 
fact,  this  very  power  of  volition  that  so  effectively  enabled  them 
to  enjoy  and  express  a  contentment  which,  to  us,  to  whom  com- 
mercial freedom  has  become  natural,  is  amazing.  They  came  ex- 
pecting to  be  in  a  condition  of  pupilage  ;  they  were  by  no  means 
shocked  at  meeting  what  they  anticipated  and  what  they  had  de- 
liberately sought,  but  were  content.  The  shock  came  after  they 
had  proved  their  ability  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  when,  in 
spite  of  the  proofs  they  had  given  that  their  adolescence  was 
terminated,  the  parent  announced,  that,  now  that  they  were  able 
to  live  for  themselves,  they  should  live  solely  for  her. 

As  for  those  who  were  born  and  bred  in  America,  it  is  enough 
to  simply  state  the  fact  of  their  being  so  born  and  bred,  to  ac- 
count for  their  acquiescence  in  a  system  which  must  have  jeemed 
as  natural  to  them  as  the  air  they  breathed. 

The  inherent  defect  of  the  Restrictive  System  was,  that  it  was 
artificial.  The  consequence  was,  that  its  existence  and  applica- 
tion depended  upon  Parliamentary  enactments  instead  of  upon 
natural  laws.  Nothing  stood  between  the  colonist  and  the  ever 
augmenting  demands  of  commerce  but  the  wisdom  of  Parliament 
and  the  prudence  of  the  administration.  But  inasmuch  as  Par- 
liament represented  the  very  people  from  whom  the  exactions 
came,  it  is  evident  that  little  dependence  could  be  placed  upon 

^  "  The  convicts  were  so  few  in  comparative  numbers  as  to  exercise  little  or  no 
tainting  influence  on  the  mass  of  the  population."  Ld.  Mahon,  "Hist.  Engld." 
V,  chap,  xliii. 


THE  LAISSEZ-FAIRE    POLICY.  22$ 

the  self-control  of  that  body,  and  that  what  protection  the  colo- 
nists could  claim,  must  come  from  the  throne  and  the  administra- 
tion. To  whatever  extent  the  opinions  of  the  individuals  which 
composed  the  different  cabinets  may  have  been  affected  by  the 
demands  of  the  commercial  classes,  it  must  nevertheless  be  ac- 
knowledged, that,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Grenville  administra- 
tion, the  attitude  of  that  branch  of  the  government  was  commend- 
able ;  and  that,  whatever  the  public  opinion  of  England  respecting 
the  colonies  might  be,  it  respected  their  autonomies  too  much 
ever  to  lay  its  hand  upon  them,  and  appreciated  their  importance 
to  British  commerce  too  highly  ever  to  assist  in  the  work  of  over- 
exaction. 

So  impressed,  indeed,  was  the  government  with  the  importance 
of  the  colonies  to  the  commercial  welfare  of  England,  that  it  used 
every  exertion  to  prevent  the  least  disturbance  of  these  harmoni- 
ous relations.  The  laissez-faire  policy,  which,  begot  of  indif- 
ference, had  arisen  of  itself,  and  which,  from  necessity,  was  con- 
firmed during  the  civil  wars,  was  now  maintained  by  the  govern- 
ment as  the  best  principle  that  could  be  devised  for  the  conduct 
of  its  colonial  relations,  and  the  one  to  be  applied  without  question 
to  the  political  administration  of  the  British  possessions.  No 
doubt  of  its  being  the  true  policy  can  now  possibly  exist.  The 
prosperity  of  the  colonies  speaks  for  itself,  and,  in  speaking  for 
itself,  emphatically  commends  that  policy  which  left  an  energetic 
people  to  work  out  its  own  way. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that,  toward  the  American  colonies,  the 
conduct  of  the  government  was  of  a  twofold  character  :  in  re- 
spect to  commerce  it  was  active,  but  in  respect  to  politics  it  was 
passive.  In  the  light  of  factories,  the  British  possessions  were 
constantly  being  **  regulated."  The  activity  of  the  government 
in  this  respect  was  as  amazing  as  it  was  persistent  :  it  could  not 
do  enough  to  satisfy  the  mercantile  interest  at  home,  though  in 
the  eyes  of  the  colonists  it  was  always  doing  too  much.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  the  light  of  dominions,  the  action  of  the  govern- 
ment toward  the  British  possessions  was  altogether  another  affair. 
It  was,  indeed,  hardly  action  at  all.  "  Hands  off  !  "  was  its  cry. 
"  Let  them  alone  ;  no  meddling  ;  they  are  doing  better  than  we 
can  do  for  them."  In  this  the  government  took  the  broad  ground 
that,  politically,  the  colonies  were  mere  dependencies,  of  whoca 


226  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

the  crown  would  exact  no  token  of  subordination,  but  allegiance, 
and  to  whom  it  would  accord  no  right  but  that  of  protection. 

It  was  the  wisest  colonial  policy  ever  known  unto  men.  It  was 
the  very  same  to  which  England,  scarred  by  the  loss  the  downfall 
of  this  policy  inflicted,  has  since  reverted  with  honor  ;  the  same 
for  which  Burke,  Chatham,  and  Camden  pleaded  with  the  earnest- 
ness of  fervid  patriotism  ;  the  same  which  has  since  covered  the 
northern  shores  of  our  great  lakes  with  a  contented,  prosperous, 
and  happy  people,  and  dotted  the  huge  globe  itself  with  rising 
empires.  Interest,  of  course,  dictated  this  policy,  which,  happily, 
accorded  with  what  was  right,  and  prosperity  flowed  from  a  union 
blessed  of  God  and  man,  until  the  subjection  of  right  by  interest 
tore  asunder  the  bond  that  united  them,  and  peace  and  good-will 
gave  way  to  discord  and  hatred. 

The  happy  condition  of  the  colonies  during  the  first  era  of  their 
existence,  and  the  tranquillity  of  their  relations  with  the  mother- 
country,  were  due  entirely  to  this  policy,  which,  by  recognizing 
the  superiority  of  self-directed  forces,  and  by  leaving  them  to  find 
out  their  own  way,  acknowledged  the  natural  relation  of  a  Gothic 
offshoot  to  its  stem.  The  fruits  of  this  intuition  were  healthy  and 
abundant,  and  the  government  was  not  blind  to  the  fact.  Not 
only  did  it  recognize  and  advocate  the  laissez-faire  policy,  so  far 
as  the  political  administration  of  the  colonies  was  concerned,  but 
it  went  further,  and  resisted  at  the  outset  every  attempt  to  sub- 
stitute another.  From  time  to  time  demands  like  those  of  Gee 
and  Ashley,  looking  to  the  colonies  as  sources  of  revenue,  were 
made,  only  to  fall  upon  deaf  ears.  No  matter  what  the  party  in 
power,  the  administration  acted  on  the  accepted  maxim,  that, 
though  colonial  commerce  should  be  regulated,  colonial  politics 
were  to  be  left  to  themselves.  The  Childs,  the  Gees,  the  Ashleys, 
screamed  in  vain  for  revenue,  but  the  baneful  influence  of  Lom- 
bard Street  and  the  Treasury  was  of  no  avail ;  the  caution  of  the 
crown  resisted  innovation,'  and  the  government,  keeping  its  eye 

'As  far  as  George  II.  was  concerned,  "  although  he  consented  to  the  statute 
and  others  which  he  thought  sanctioned  by  his  predecessors,  especially  King 
"William,  yet  it  was  reported  and  understood  that  he  had  uniformly  resisted  the 
importunities  of  ministers,  governors,  planters,  and  projectors,  to  induce  him  to 
extend  the  system  of  taxation  and  revenue  in  America,  by  saying  *  that  he  did 
not  understand  the  colonies  ;  he  wished  their  prosperity.  They  appeared  to  be 
happy  at  present,  and  he  would  not  consent  to  any  innovations,  the  consequences 
of  which  he  could  not  foresee.'  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  could  not  have  said  a 
wiser  thing." — ^John  Adams,  *'  Life  and  Corresp.,"  x,  347. 


THE    TEMPTATION,  22/ 

steadily  fixed  on  the  one  object  for  which  the  colonies  were  main- 
tained, moved  not  an  inch  toward  revenue,  and  was  deaf  to  im- 
portunity. Of  all  the  acts  of  trade,  but  one  only  was  conceived 
in  the  terms  of  a  revenue  act,  and  the  haste  with  which  the 
government  disavowed  any  political  motive  and  explained  away 
the  offensive  terminology,  lent  emphasis  to  the  purely  commercial 
character  of  its  policy.  The  legislation,  it  is  true,  displayed  the 
influence  of  the  wharves,  but  the  merchants  were  consulted  so 
far  only  as  commerce  was  concerned,  and  no  further  :  the  politi- 
cians were  not  even  listened  to  with  patience.  "What,"  exclaimed 
Sir  Robert  Walpole  to  Keith,  lately  Governor  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  was  submitting  a  plan  for  raising  revenue  from  the  colonies, 
**what !  I  have  Old  England  set  against  me,  and  do  you  think  I 
will  have  New  England  likewise  !  "  Walpole  but  echoed  the  fixed 
maxim  of  Whitehall,  "  Let  colonial  politics  alone  !  "  and  no  truer 
thing  was  ever  said,  than  that  Mr.  Grenville  lost  America  by  doing 
what  no  other  minister  had  ever  done — reading  the  American 
dispatches.* 

The  evil  day  fell  upon  Great  Britain,  when,  tempted  by  the 
rapidly  increasing  wealth  of  her  American  possessions,  irritated 
by  the  expressions  of  a  desire  for  independence  on  the  part  of  a 
few  politicians,  and  urged  by  the  needs  of  an  exchequer  inade- 
quate to  her  suddenly  augmented  armament,  she  first  listened  to 
suggestions  for  making  the  provinces  sources  of  revenue,  and 
then  adopted  them.  It  was  a  step  which  indicated  the  ascend- 
ancy of  prerogative  over  chartered  liberties,  of  absolutism  over 
the  rights  of  kindred  people,  of  centralization  over  local  self- 
government,  of  a  policy,  in  a  word,  which  was  to  annihilate  their 
local  self-government,  and  place  the  fortunes  of  the  colonies  at 
the  mercy  of  the  necessities  of  a  fluctuating  Treasury.' 

For  a  moment  the  undisturbed  tranquillity  may  have  led  the 
government  to  suppose  the  measure  unobjectionable,  and  to  con- 
sider acquiescence  as  granted.  But  the  unrufiled  calm  was  only 
the  silence  of  amazement,  or  of  want  of  comprehension.  Fixed 
and  rooted  systems  of  administration  are  not  torn  up  in  a  day, 

'  Ld.  Orford's  "Mems.,"  n.  by  Sir  Denis  le  Marchant,  ii,  69.  Laboulaye, 
**  Hist,  des  Eiats-Unis,"  ii,  32. 

*  " a  resolution,"  said  Lord  Chatham  afterward,  in  speaking  of  the  De- 
clarator)'- Act,  **  for  England's  right  to  do  what  the  Treasury  pleased  with  three 
millions  of  freemen." — "Correspondence,"  ii,  365. 


22S  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

nor  are  they  ciianged  ordinarily  from  whim  or  fancy.  In  this 
case,  as  it  will  be  seen,  the  first  step  was  a  modest  one,  its  effect 
was  not  immediately  appreciated,  and  it  was  not  followed  by  any 
significant  response.  When,  however,  emboldened  by  the  success 
of  the  first,  the  government  announced  its  determination  to  take 
the  second  step,  long,  loud,  and  piercing  was  the  cry  that  pro- 
tested against  its  advance.  At  once  this  conduct  was  regarded  as 
evidence  of  a  total  change  of  policy,  whereby  the  compensation 
for  commercial  restriction  was  to  be  withdrawn  and  their  local 
self-government  extirpated  ;  the  result  of  which  would  be,  that,  in 
the  end,  the  colonies  would  remain  the  uncompensated  feeders  of 
British  trade,  and  the  colonists  would  become  the  unrequited 
bondsmen  of  British  revenue  and  imperial  power.  Were  such  a 
policy  to  gain  a  foothold,  two  things,  either  of  them  intolerable, 
would  ensue :  on  one  hand,  the  colonists  would  be  driven 
from  the  lofty  position  of  self-government  in  which  they  took 
such  pride,  they  would,  in  fact,  be  set  back  to  the  condition  in 
which  they  were  previous  to  leaving  the  old  country,  and  would 
thus  lose  the  headway  made  by  more  than  four  generations ;  and, 
on  the  other,  their  obedience  would  be  enforced  to  pecuniary 
exaction  which  would  have  no  limits  but  those  set  by  the  forbear- 
ance which  refrains  from  killing  only  so  long  as  the  eggs  are 
laid.  This  touched  their  fortune  ;  that,  their  self-respect.  If 
the  right  to  raise  money  from  them  for  imperial  purposes  were 
once  conceded  without  limitation,  as  submission  to  unconstitu- 
tional legislation  would  imply,  then  their  property  lay  at  the  mercy 
of  the  growing  necessities  of  the  empire  ;  if  the  right  to  intrusion 
in  their  affairs,  such  as  would  necessarily  follow  the  enforcement 
of  revenue  acts,  were  granted,  they  would  no  longer  possess  the 
power  of  governing  themselves.  Tax-collectors,  not  their  own, 
would  swarm  through  the  land  ;  courts,  over  which  they  had  no 
control,  would  be  established  in  their  midst ;  troops,  to  compel  the 
execution  of  process  issuing  from  these  obnoxious  tribunals, 
would  be  quartered  among  them  ;  and  the  provincial  assemblies, 
overawed  by  the  presence  of  organized  force,  would  be  dumb  in 
their  behalf,  and  would  be  powerless  to  resent  insult  ;  or,  worse 
than  all,  might  actually  be  servile  in  lending  help  to  oppression. 
Already  their  excited  imagination  pictured  a  monstrous  growth, 
rising  out  of  their  very  midst,  under  whose  weight  they  would  be 


ALARM  IN   THE   COLONIES.  229 

helpless,  and  they  saw  themselves  exposed  to  the  burden  of  an 
establishment  which,  foreign  to  their  tastes  and  sentiments,  and 
hostile  to  their  interests,  would  bring  along  with  it  all  the  engine- 
ry needful  to  the  injury  of  those  for  whose  benefit  it  ought  only 
to  exist.  The  right  of  self-government,  without  its  enjoyment, 
would  be  but  a  mockery,  and  liberty,  shaking  the  dust  from  off  its 
feet  against  them,  would  fly  their  coasts. 

Thus  it  was,  that,  before  the  wooden  horse  had  fairly  left  the 
beach  on  its  way  toward  the  walls,  before  the  first  halt  was  over, 
and  before  the  order  for  its  further  advance  had  died  away,  our 
ancestors  broke  forth  into  frantic  clamor.  What  caused  them  to 
do  so,  can  be  gatliered  from  what  has  been  said  heretofore,  but 
the  exposition  will  not  be  complete  without  first  considering  the 
legislation  which  reflected  the  sentiments  that  characterized  the 
literature  to  which  we  have  just  given  our  attention. 


PART    III. 

THE   ERA  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  AMERICA. 

'*  les  r /volutions  que  forme  la  liber ti  ne  soni  qu'  une  confirm 

maiion  tie  la  liber  US' 

Esprit  des  LoiSy  liv.  xix,  chap,  xxvii. 


131 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Wooden  Horse, 

IT  is  unnecessary  to  enumerate  all  the  different  Acts  of  Par- 
liament— though  each  served  the  purpose  of  irritating  the 
gener.il  temper — by  which  "regulation"  gradually  encroached  on 
rights  that  nature,  time,  and  charters  had  all  united  in  making 
sacred.  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  the  spirit  of  trade,  presuming 
on  its  manifest  supremacy,  which,  so  far  at  least  as  Massachusetts 
is  concerned,  had  received  legislative  acknowledgment  in  the 
adoption  of  the  Navigation  Act,  fully  carried  out  the  law  of  its 
being,  and  that,  invariably  proceeding  from  much  to  more,  it 
made  one  trespass  the  pretext  for  another,  until  restriction  became 
onerous,  compensation  was  fast  diminishing,  and  exaction  began 
to  wear  a  threatening  look.  The  system  of  restriction,  in  fact, 
had  become  so  searching,  so  grasping,  and  so  comprehensive,  that, 
had  it  been  rigidly  enforced,  the  colonies  could  scarcely  have 
traded  at  all.  The  Acts  of  Trade  had  followed  each  other  thick 
and  fast.  Tobacco,  rum,  sugar,  molasses ;  wool,  fish,  timber,  and 
iron, — all,  in  the  course  of  time,  became  the  subject  of  English 
aggrandizement  at  colonial  cost,  until,  according  to  Mr.  Otis,  not 
even  a  fleece  of  wool  could  be  conveyed  in  a  canoe  across  a  rivei 
or  a  brook,  without  the  risk  of  seizure  and  forfeiture.  The  statute 
book  bristled  with  legislation  shoring  up  the  Navigation  Acts 
and  the  Acts  of  Trade.  As  the  former  aimed  at  the  control  of 
commerce  on  the  high  seas,  so  these,  their  progeny,  souglrc  the 
control  of  provincial  labor  and  internal  trade.' 

*  Exporting  wool,  contrary  to  the  regulations,  involved  forfeiture  of  ship,  etc., 
12  George  II.,  c.  21,  s.  11.  No  wool,  or  woollen  manufacture  of  the  plantations 
was  to  be  exported,  10  and  il  Wm.  III.,  c.  10,  s.  19.  Steel  furnaces,  slit- 
ting mills    etc.   were  not  to  he  erected  in  the  plantations,  23  George  II,,  C. 

233 


234  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

The  result  of  all  this  was  to  excite  alarm,  and,  from  making  the 
temper  of  the  colonies  sensitive  to  encroachment,  to  render  it 
irritable.  However,  as  the  political  rights  of  the  colonies  were 
untouched,  dissatisfaction  was  limited  to  commercial  exaction  ; 
though  nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  irritation  respecting  one 
thing,  was  apt,  on  the  slightest  provocation,  to  extend  to  another. 
Still,  no  one  had  the  intention  of  doing  more  than,  by  protesting 
and  by  showing  a  bold  front,  to  maintain  chartered  rights.  It 
was  when  the  anxiety  of  the  colonies  in  reference  to  their  com- 
mercial future  was  fully  aroused,  that  there  occurred  what  may 
well  be  called  the  forerunner  of  the  Revolution.  From  the  first 
it  was  no  more  than  of  the  bigness  of  a  man's  hand,  and  it  speed- 
ily resolved  itself  into  thin  air  before  the  chilling  blast  of  Otis' 
logic.  But,  nevertheless,  it  too  plainly  betrayed  the  drift  of  gov- 
ernment, and  the  apprehension  it  left  behind  grew  into  actual 
alarm  when  more  portentous  clouds,  one  after  another,  rose  above 
the  horizon.  It  served  the  unfortunate  purpose  of  raising  the 
appearance  of  antagonism  between  the  government  and  colonists, 
it  placed  them  in  the  attitude  of  confronting  each  other,  and  set 
the  latter  to  watching  for  encroachments,  and  pondering  on  the 
means  of  opposing  them  : — yet  no  such  thing  as  actual  conflict  was 
so  much  as  dreamed  of  by  either.  This  harbinger  of  strife  was 
the  attempt  of  the  government  to  enforce  the  Acts  of  Trade  by 
Writs  of  Assistance. 

In  his  work,  previously  alluded  to,  Ashley  had  made  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  :  "  The  laws  now  in  being  for  the  regulation  of 
the  plantation  trade,  namely  the  14th  of  Charles  II.,  chap.  2, 
sec.  2,  3,  9,  10  ;  7  and  8  William  III.,  chap.  22,  sec.  5,  6  ;  6 
George  II.,  chap.  13,'  are  very  well  calculated,  and  were  they  put 
in  execution  as  they  ought  to  be,  would,  in  a  great  measure,  put 
an  end  to  the  mischiefs  here  complained  of.  If  the  several  offi- 
cers of  the  customs  would  see  that  all  entries  of  sugar,  rum,  and 
molasses  were  made  conformable  to  the  directions  of  those  laws  ; 
and  let  every  entry  of  such  goods  distinguish  expressly,  what  are 
of  British  growth  and  produce,  and  what  are  of  foreign  growth 
and  produce  ;  and  let  the  whole  cargo  of  sugar,  penneles,  rum, 

29,  s.  9.     Hats  were  not  to  be  exported  from  one  colony  to  another,  5  George 
II.,  c.  22  ;  nor  were  hatters  to  have  more  than   two  apprentices,  5  Geo.  II., 
c,  22,  s.  7.     And  furs  were  to  be  taken  to  Great  Britain,  8  Geo.  I.,  c.  15,  s.  24. 
*See  Appendix  1*". 


ASHLEY'S  PROPOSITION:   THE  MOLASSES  ACTS,      233 

spirits,  molasses,  and  syrup,  be  inserted  at  large  in  the  manifest 
and  clearance  of  every  ship  or  vessel,  under  office  seal,  or  be 
liable  to  the  same  duties  or  penalties  as  such  goods  of  foreign 
growth  are  liable  to,  this  would  very  much  balk  the  progress  of 
those  who  carry  on  this  illicit  trade,  and  be  agreeable  and  advan- 
tageous to  all  fair  traders.  And  all  masters  and  skippers  of  boats 
in  all  the  plantations  should  give  some  reasonable  security,  not  to 
take  in  any  such  goods  of  foreign  growth  from  any  vessel  not 
duly  entered  at  the  custom-house,  in  order  to  land  the  same,  or 
put  the  same  on  board  any  other  ship  or  vessel,  without  a  warrant 
or  sufferance  from  a  proper  officer.  *  *  *  In  fine,  I  would 
humbly  propose  that  the  duties  on  foreign  sugar  and  rum  imposed 
by  the  before-mentioned  act  of  the  6th  of  King  George  II.  re- 
main as  they  are,  and  also  the  duty  on  molasses,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  importations  into  the  sugar  colonies  ;  but  that  there  be  an 
abatement  of  the  duty  on  molasses  imported  into  the  northern 
colonies,  so  far  as  to  give  the  British  planters  a  reasonable  advan- 
tage over  foreigners,  and  what  may  bear  some  proportion  to  the 
charge,  risk,  and  inconvenience  of  running  it  in  the  manner  they 
now  do,  or  after  the  proposed  regulation  shall  be  put  in  execution. 
Whether  this  duty  shall  be  one,  two,  or  three  pence,  sterling  money 
of  Great  Britain,  per  gallon,  may  be  a  matter  of  consideration." 

It  is  easy  to  see  Ashley's  idea  :  The  trade  with  the  West  Indies, 
and  the  great  demand  from  the  continental  colonies  for  sugar  and 
the  different  articles  derived  from  it,  or  into  which  it  entered, 
made  "  the  Molasses  Acts,"  as  they  were  called,  very  important 
ones.  By  these  Acts  it  was  provided,  among  other  things,  that 
molasses,  rum,  sugar,  etc.,  brought  from  foreign  colonies  into  the 
British  American,  should  pay  certain  specified  duties.  The  most 
important  of  these  Acts  was  one  enacted  in  the  time  of  George  II., 
and  which  is  remarkable  from  the  fact,  that  it  was  the  only  single 
Act  of  Trade,  prior  to  the  Stamp  Act  epoch,  that  contained  the 
terminology  of  a  revenue  act.  Revenue  acts  usually  began  by 
stating  the  reasons  which  called  for  the  existence  and  the  neces- 
sity of  revenue,  and  always  terminated  this  statement  by  saying, 
that,  for  remedy  whereof,  the  Commons  "have  ^/V^w  and  granted** 
to  his  Majesty  the  respective  rates  and  duties  thereinafter  ex- 
pressed. So  rigorous  was  the  application  of  this  language,  that  it 
became  technical,  and  had  all  the  force  technicality  could  give, 


236  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

and  lawyer  and  statesman  alike  joined  in  pronouncing  an  act  con- 
taining, in  the  customary  relations,  these  significant  words,  a 
revenue  act ;  while  one  wanting  these  words,  was  as  emphatically 
declared  not  to  be  a  revenue  act.  Positive  as  this  rule  may  be,  it 
may  be  modified  by  attendant  circumstances  ;  such  as  the  lan- 
guage of  the  title,  which,  in  revenue  acts,  always  expressed  the 
object  to  be  "an  aid  to  his  Majesty,"  or  something  to  that  effect 
The  other  acts  specified  by  Ashley,  of  Charles  II.,  and  William 
and  Mary,  also  gave  duties  ;  but  in  these  neither  their  titles  pur- 
ported their  being  grants,  nor  did  the  words  "  give  and  grant " 
precede  the  enacting  parts.  Of  course  any  interpretation  of  these 
as  revenue  acts,  under  the  accepted  rule,  was  out  of  the  question, 
and  as  to  the  one  of  George  the  Second,  the  government  listened 
with  favoring  ear  to  the  construction  put  upon  it  by  the  colonies. 
This  was,  that,  as  the  title,  which  was  simply  "an  act  for  the 
better  securing  of  the  trade  of  his  Majesty's  sugar  colonies  in 
America,"  did  not  contain  a  single  word  from  which  a  grant  could 
be  implied,  but,  on  the  contrary,  purported  only  a  commercial  reg- 
ulation ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  act  was  a  kind  of  compromise,  and, 
being  enacted  at  the  express  desire  of  a  part  of  the  colonies  them- 
selves, might  be  said  to  be  with  their  consent,  therefore,  it  was 
the  title  that  expressed  the  real  meaning  of  those  who  called  the 
act  into  existence,  and  its  language  should  govern  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  words  of  gift  and  grant  which  followed.  This  view, 
strained  as  it  was,  was  promptly  acquiesced  in  by  the  govern- 
ment, whose  policy  was  to  shun  colonial  politics,  which  such  a 
thing  as  revenue  plainly  smacked  of.  It  was  dangerous  ground, 
and  they  gladly  made  use  of  the  bridge  built  for  their  retreat. 

It  is  plain,  that  the  government,  by  discarding  its  acquiescence 
and  taking  advantage  of  the  terminology  of  the  act  of  George  II., 
would  have  a  revenue  act  at  hand,  by  which  it  could  raise  a  large 
sum  in  the  present,  and  on  which  it  could  build  a  system,  which, 
like  the  future  toward  which  it  looked,  would  take  care  of  itself. 
This  is  precisely  the  scheme  of  Ashley,  who,  at  a  dash  of  the  pen, 
lumped  the  sugar  acts,  and  made  them  all  stand  on  the  Act  of 
George  II.  He  knew  that  whatever  the  title  of  an  act  which  con- 
tained words  of  gift  and  grant,  or  what  the  circumstances  that 
produced  it,  really  and  truly  it  was,  what  Otis  afterward  asserted 
it  to  be,  a  revenue  act,  a  taxation  law.      That  it  was  an  unconsti- 


WRITS  OF  ASSISTANCE.  2yj 

tutional  law,  a  law  subversive  of  every  end  of  society  and  gov- 
ernment, and  that  it  was  as  good  as  null  and  void,  and  no  better ; 
concerning  this  view  of  the  enactment,  he  had  nothing  to  say. 
It  stood  ready  at  hand  ;  its  misinterpretation  in  the  interests  of 
peace  and  good-will  stood  in  the  way,  and  to  Ashley  and  the 
crowd  of  revenue  seekers  at  his  back,  it  was  only  a  part  of  the 
system  they  wished  to  overturn,  and  no  more. 

So  long  as  Ashley's  aims  were  confined  to  Ashley,  the  colonists 
cared  little,  but  the  knowledge  that  he  was  the  latest  exponent  of 
a  class  who  were  clamoring  for  American  revenue,  and  who 
might  possibly  gain  the  control  of  Parliament,  made  the  thing 
serious.  However,  the  government  continued  to  adhere  to  the 
view  it  had  adopted  of  the  act  of  George  II.,  until  what  was  feared 
by  the  colonists  became  reality,  and  the  progeny  of  the  Childs, 
the  Gees,  and  the  Ashleys  pushed  its  honorable  policy  from  its 
moorings.  This  deplorable  event  occurred  when  it  was  an- 
nounced that  "  the  Molasses  Acts "  would  thenceforward  be 
strictly  enforced.  Great  was  the  apprehension  expressed  in  the 
colonies,  and  great  the  alarm — "greater,"  says  Judge  Minot,* 
*'than  the  taking  of  Fort  William  Henry  caused  in  the  year  1757." 
New  England  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  excitement,  out  of  which 
arose  a  case  in  the  Massachusetts  courts,  in  which  the  constitu- 
tionality of  this  act,  and  even  the  Navigation  and  Trade  Acts 
themselves,  was  attacked  by  James  Otis  in  a  manner  that  will 
render  him  immortal. 

The  question  turned  upon  writs  of  assistance^  which  were  pro- 
cess, as  the  lawyers  term  it,  of  occasional  issue  from  the  Court  of 
Exchequer  in  England.  These  writs  imposed  upon  the  customs 
officers  the  odious  task  of  intruding  into  the  private  affairs  of  the 
defendants  named  in  them,  of  entering  private  buildings  and  even 
dwellings,  and,  once  there,  of  breaking  open  chests,  trunks,  boxes, 
or  any  thing  that  afforded  a  concealment  for  smuggled  goods. 
For,  in  an  act  of  14th  Charles  II.,  which  had  been  extended  to  the 
colonies,  there  was  a  clause  authorizing  this  very  violence,  if  com- 
mitted by  any  one  armed  with  a  "  writ  of  assistance  under  the 
seal  of  his  Majesty's  Court  of  Exchequer."     These  warrants  were 

**'  History  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  140.  "  This  I  fully  believe,"  says  John 
Adams,  quoting  the  above  words,  "  and  certainly  know  to  be  true,  for  I  was  an 
eye  and  ear  witness  to  both  of  these  alarms."  "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  345.  For 
Molasses  Act,  see  Appendix  E  ;  6  Geo.  II.,  c.  13. 


23S  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

in  the  nature  of  those  general  warrants,  which  so  shook  the  king- 
dom, a  short  time  afterward,  and  were,  of  course,  highly  arbitrary. 

It  need  hardly  be  said,  that  nothing  could  be  more  offensive  to 
a  people,  to  whom  the  infraction  of  domestic  privacy  was  almost 
a  thing  unknown,  than  such  a  measure,  and  inquiry  at  once  re- 
solved itself  into  the  questions  :  What  are  Writs  of  Assistance  ? 
and  Are  they  of  force  in  Massachusetts  ?  The  government  law- 
yers were  ready  with  such  information  as  they  had  in  answer  to 
the  first  question,  but  their  efforts  to  answer  the  second  affirma- 
tively proved  ludicrously  futile  before  the  overwhelming  denial 
maintained  by  Otis,  whose  argument  was  as  follows  : 

First,  he  explained  why  he  appeared  in  opposition  to  the  crown 
so  shortly  after  being  the  Advocate-General  in  his  Majesty's  Court 
of  Admiralty.  This  was,  that  his  cause  was  in  favor  of  British 
liberty,  and  in  opposition  to  a  kind  of  power,  the  exercise  of 
which  had  already  cost  one  king  of  England  his  throne,  and 
another  his  head. 

He  then  advanced  to  a  consideration  of  the  natural  rights  of 
man, — those  individual  rights  which  are  inherent  and  inalienable, 
and  of  which  he  proved  the  right  of  property  to  be  one.  From 
these  rights,  which  belonged  to  individuals,  he  passed  to  those 
belonging  to  society,  and  which,  termed  social  rights,  are  likewise 
natural  and  inalienable :  for,  the  surrender  of  them  would  be  of  no 
greater  validity  in  point  of  evidence  than  are  the  acts  of  madmen 
or  those  surprised  by  fraud,  and,  being  therefore  worthless,  are  of  no 
avail  against  the  inalienability  of  these  rights ;  that,  in  short,  such 
rights  are  as  natural  and  as  incapable  of  divestiture  as  the  others. 

Having  thus  defined  those  individual  and  social  rights  which  are 
natural  and  inalienable,  he  showed  how,  from  time  immemorial, 
they  had  been  recognized  and  protected  by  the  British  Constitu- 
tion as  fundamental  laws  ;  how,  indeed,  the  Constitution  itself 
was  founded  on  them,  and  he  called  to  the  proof  of  his  position 
the  whole  range  of  British  legislation  and  British  exploit,  from  the 
old  Saxon  laws  and  Magna  Charta  to  the  Bill  of  Rights  and  the 
Revolution  of  the  seventeenth  century  ;  how,  as  British  subjects, 
the  colonists  were  as  much  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  British 
freemen  by  the  law  of  nature,  the  Constitution,  and  the  express 
guarantees  of  the  colonial  charters,  as  the  freemen  of  England 
were ;  and  how  no  fiction  of  law,  such  as  that  of  "virtual  represen- 


OTIS'  ARGUMENT,  239 

tation,"  nor  any  thing  else,  was  of  the  least  avail  against  these 
rights. 

Thus  claiming  for  the  colonists,  from  the  outset,  the  birthrights 
of  an  Englishman,  he  proceeded  to  take  up,  one  by  one,  the  Acts 
of  Trade,  and  demonstrated,  that,  if  they  were  to  be  enforced  as 
revenue  laws,  there  was  an  end  at  once  to  all  security  of  property, 
liberty,  and  life,  to  every  right  of  nature,  to  the  English  Constitu- 
tion and  to  the  Charter  of  the  province.  He  scouted  the  distinc- 
tion, then  so  popular  and  commonplace,  between  **  external  and 
internal  taxes,"  and  asserted  that  there  was  no  such  distinction  in 
theory,  nor  upon  any  principle  but  that  of  "  necessity."  That 
the  need  of  having  the  commerce  of  the  empire  under  one  direc- 
tion, was  obvious,  and  that  so  sensible  had  the  Americans  been  of 
this  necessity,  that  they  had  actually  tolerated  the  distinction  be- 
tween external  and  internal  taxes,  and  had  submitted  to  the  Acts 
of  Trade  as  regulations  of  commerce  ;  but  never,  be  it  observed, 
as  taxations  or  as  revenue  laws.  Nor  had  the  government  itself 
regarded  these  enactments  as  revenue  laws,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
had  never  so  much  as  attempted  to  enforce  them  as  such,  but  had 
suffered  them  to  lie  dormant  in  that  character  for  wellnigh  a 
century.  And  well  it  did  so  !  for  the  whole  power  of  Great 
Britain  would  be  ineffectual  to  enforce  them.  Nay,  if  the  king  of 
England  himself,  were  in  person  encamped  on  Boston  Common, 
at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand  men,  with  all  his  navy  on  our 
coast,  he  would  not  be  able  to  execute  these  laws.  That  it  was 
true,  the  Navigation  Act  was  binding  upon  Massachusetts,  but  for 
the  reason  only  that  Massachusetts  had  adopted  it  by  her  own  act. 
He  then  commented  on  this  statute,  and,  while  he  would  not  deny 
its  efficacy  as  a  political  policy,  nor  even  controvert  the  necessity 
of  it,  he  expatiated  on  its  narrow,  selfish,  and  exclusive  spirit. 
He  declared,  that  the  act  of  its  adoption  and  the  obedience  rend- 
ered unto  it  were  a  sacrifice  to  the  mother-country  on  the  part  of 
the  colonies,  and  that  it  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  cupidity  of  any 
mother,  especially  one  whose  children  had  always  been  so  fondly 
disposed  to  acknowledge  the  condescending  tenderness  of  that 
mother. 

Considering  the  nature  of  the  Navigation  Act,  he  said,  that  it 
was  wholly  and  simply  prohibitory.  It  abounded  indeed  with 
penalties  and  forfeitures,  and  with  bribes  to  governors  and  in- 


240  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

formers,  to  custom-house  officers,  naval  officers,  and  commanders, 
— but  it  imposed  no  taxes.  Subsequent  acts  of  trade  contained 
these  in  abundance,  but  this  act  laid  none.  Nevertheless,  this 
was  one  of  the  acts  that  were  to  be  carried  into  strict  execution 
by  writs  of  assistance,  and  houses  were  to  be  broken  open,  and  if 
a  piece  of  Dutch  linen  could  be  found,  from  the  cellar  to  the 
cockloft,  it  was  to  be  seized,  and  become  the  prey  of  governors, 
informers,  and  majesty. 

Then  recurring  to  the  Acts  of  Trade,  which  were  the  progeny 
of  the  Navigation  Act,  he  pointed  out  the  different  features 
which  marked  the  offspring.  These,  he  contended,  did  impose 
taxes ;  enormous,  burdensome,  ruinous,  intolerable  taxes.  And 
here  giving  a  loose  reign  to  his  genius,  he  launched  out  into 
bitter  invective  against  the  tyranny  of  taxation  without  represen- 
tation. One  after  another,  these  acts  were  taken  up,  scrutinized, 
analyzed,  criticised,  only  to  be  flun^;  to  the  winds  with  scorn. 
The  burden  of  his  song  was,  "  writs  of  assistance."  All  these 
rigorous  statutes  were  now  to  be  enforced  by  the  still  more  rigor- 
ous instruments  of  arbitrary  power.  What  were  writs  of  assist- 
ance ?  Where  were  they  to  be  found  ?  When,  where,  and  by 
what  authority  had  they  been  invented,  created,  established  ?  No 
one  could  answer.  Neither  the  Chief  Justice  nor  his  associates 
had  ever  seen  such  a  writ,  or  knew  any  thing  about  it.  Otis  de- 
clared boldly,  that  there  was  no  such  a  thing  known  to  the  law  of 
the  land  ;  and  neither  bench  nor  bar  ventured  to  confute  him. 
He  went  farther,  and  asserted  that  there  was  no  color  of  au- 
thority for  this  writ,  except  in  one  statute  offered  by  the  crown 
officers,  and  that  one  contained  ilie  words,  "  writ  of  assistance 
under  the  seal  of  his  Majesty's  Court  of  Exchequer."  There 
being  such  a  thing,  then,  exclaimed  Otis,  where  is  your  seal  of  his 
Majesty's  Court  of  Exchequer  !  And  what  has  the  Court  of 
Exchequer  to  do  here  ? 

Since  the  writ  had  no  such  seal,  and  inasmuch  as,  even  if  it 
had,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer  did  not  extend  to 
the  colonies  and  therefore  could  give  it  no  force,  and,  further,  as 
no  tribunal  or  office  existed,  which,  by  law  or  implication,  could 
be  construed  as  taking  the  place  of  such  court,  and  from  which 
such  writ  could  issue,  the  questions  were  unanswerable,  and  no 
reply  was  given. 


OTIS*  ARGUMENT,  24 1 

In  tossing  over  the  acts  from  which  the  crown  lawyers  pre- 
tended to  derive  the  writs  of  assistance,  Otis  had  much  sport. 
He  allowed  his  humor,  wit,  and  irony  free  play,  when  the  acts 
regulating  the  trade  of  Bay-making  in  Colchester,  and  of  Kidder- 
minster stuffs,  and  prohibiting  the  importation  of  bone-lace,  cut- 
work,  embroidery,  fringe,  band-strings,  buttons,  and  needlework, 
were  gravely  offered  in  support  of  a  writ  which  neither  Rastell, 
Coke,  nor  Fitzherbert,  could  show.  Upon  the  principle  of  con- 
struction which  would  make  precedents  of  these  and  similar 
enactments,  he  argued  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  and  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  might  be  extended 
to  the  colonies  ;  and  all  the  sanguinary  statutes  against  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  and  all  the  church  establishment  of  arch- 
bishops and  bishops,  deans  and  chapters,  priests  and  deacons, 
and  all  the  statutes  of  uniformity,  and  all  the  acts  against  con- 
venticles. 

He  admitted,  of  course,  that  writs  of  one  kind  may  be  legal ; 
that  is,  a  special  writ,  directed  to  a  special  officer,  and  to  search 
certain  houses  specially  set  forth  in  the  writ.  Such  a  writ  could 
be  granted  by  the  Court  of  Exchequer  in  England,  upon  oath 
made  before  the  Lord  Treasurer  by  the  person  who  asks  it,  that 
he  suspects  such  goods  to  be  concealed  in  those  very  places  he 
desires  to  search.  And  in  this  light  the  writ  appears  like  a  war- 
rant from  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  to  search  for  stolen  goods.  In 
the  old  books  are  precedents  of  general  warrants  to  search  sus- 
pected houses,  but  in  the  modern  books  only  special  warrants  are 
to  be  found,  and  it  has  been  adjudged  that  special  warrants  only 
are  legal.  In  the  same  manner  he  relied  upon  it,  that  the  writ 
prayed  for  in  the  petition  in  question,  being  general,  was  illegal. 
In  the  first  place,  then,  the  writ  before  them  being  universal,  or 
general,  every  one  with  this  writ  might  be  a  tyrant.  In  the  next 
place,  it  was  perpetual.  There  was  no  return  to  be  made,  and 
thus  the  holder  of  it  was  accountable  to  no  one,  and  might  reign 
secure  in  his  petty  tyranny.  In  the  third  place,  a  person  with 
this  writ  might  enter  all  houses,  shops,  etc.,  in  the  daytime,  at 
v/ill,  and  command  all  to  assist  him.  Fourthly,  by  this  writ,  not 
only  deputies,  but  even  their  menial  servants  could  lord  it  over 
ihe  people.  Now  one  of  the  most  essential  branches  of  English 
liberty  is   the  freedom   of   one's  house.     A  man's   house   is  his 


242  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

castle  ;  and  so  long  as  he  is  quiet,  he  is  as  well  guarded  as  a 
prince  in  his  castle.  This  writ,  if  declared  legal,  would  totalir 
annihilate  this  right.  Bare  suspicion  without  oath  would  be  sufii- 
cient,  and  that  the  wanton  exercise  of  this  power  was  not  the 
chimerical  suggestion  of  a  heated  brain,  he  gave  instances  of  it 
which  had  actually  occurred  in  the  neighborhood. 

Reason  and  the  Constitution,  then,  were  both  against  this  writ. 
Only  one  instance  of  it  could  be  found  in  the  law-books,  and  that 
was  in  the  zenith  of  arbitrary  power,  during  the  reign  of  Charles 
II.,  when  star-chamber  powers  were  pushed  to  extremity  by  some 
ignorant  clerk  of  the  exchequer.  But,  had  this  writ  been  in  any 
book  whatever,  it  would  have  been  illegal.  All  precedents  are 
under  the  control  of  the  principles  of  law,  and  no  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment can  establish  such  a  writ,  for  an  act  against  the  Constitution 
is  void.  The  act  of  William  III.,  therefore,  is  confined  to  the  sense 
of  special  writs :  that  an  officer  should  show  probable  ground ; 
should  take  his  oath  of  it ;  should  do  this  before  a  magistrate ; 
and  that  such  magistrate,  if  he  think  proper,  should  issue  a  special 
warrant  to  a  constable  to  search  the  place.  Any  thing  and  every 
thing  in  the  nature  of  a  general  warrant  was  void  and  of  no 
effect. 

He  did  not,  however,  stop  here,  but  turning  to  the  literature 
illustrative  of  the  spirit  which  animated  the  Acts  of  Trade,  and 
would  enforce  their  execution  as  revenue  laws,  he  paid  his  com- 
pliments, in  no  measured  terms,  to  the  galaxy  in  which  shone  a 
Child,  a  Gee,  and  an  Ashley.  "  I  cannot  pretend,"  says  John 
Adams,  from  whom  we  have  the  only  report  of  this  argument 
worthy  of  the  name, — "  I  cannot  pretend  to  remember  these  obser- 
vations verbatim  and  with  precision.  I  can  only  say  that  they 
struck  me  very  forcibly  :  Tacitus  himself  could  not  express  more 
in  fewer  words."  Otis  had  no  thanks  for  the  knight  for  his  compli- 
ments to  New  England  at  the  expense  of  Virginia,  and  he  stigma- 
tized, as  it  deserved,  the  inference,  that  colonies  were  to  be  sacri- 
ficed for  being  industrious  and  frugal,  wise  and  virtuous,  while 
others  were  to  be  encouraged  and  fostered  for  laziness,  vice,  and 
profligacy.  But  'ivhen  he  came  to  the  part  William  had  acted  in 
this  business,  the  scorn  of  the  orator  burst  forth  :  A  Stadtholder 
adopting  the  system  of  St.  John  and  Downing,  of  Child  and 
Charles  the  Second ;  a  system  having  for  its  result  the  destruction 


OTIS'  ARGUMENT,  243 

of  his  native  country,  to  which  he  owed  not  only  his  existence, 
but  all  his  power  and  importance  besides  !     Proh  Pudor  ! 

The  very  effigies  of  the  Stuarts  that  beamed  from  the  walls  of 
the  council  chamber  must  have  wreathed  their  smiles  in  disdain 
of  the  Dutch  apostate. 

Turning  to  the  laws  relating  to  the  internal  policy  of  the  colo- 
nies and  their  domestic  manufactures,  Otis  alternately  laughed  at 
and  raged  against  them  all.  One  member  of  Parliament,  he  said, 
had  declared  that  even  a  hob-nail  should  not  be  manufactured  in 
America ;  another  had  moved  that  the  Americans  should  be  com- 
pelled by  act  of  Parliament  to  send  their  horses  to  England  to  be 
shod — but  this  last  was  a  man  of  sense,  and  meant  by  this  admira- 
ble irony  to  cast  ridicule  on  the  whole  selfish,  partial,  arbitrary 
and  contracted  system  of  Parliamentary  regulation  in  America. 
Every  one  of  these  regulations  of  internal  policy  he  pronounced 
null  and  void  by  the  law  of  nature,  by  the  English  Constitution, 
and  by  the  American  charters,  because  America  was  not  repre- 
sented in  Parliament. 

This  led  him  to  remark  upon  the  charters,  whose  history  he 
glanced  at,  and  from  which  he  drew  the  conclusion,  that,  as 
neither  James  I.  nor  Charles  I.  could  have  wished  the  Parliaments 
they  hated  to  share  with  them  the  government  of  the  colonies 
and  the  enjoyment  of  royal  prerogatives  ;  and  as  neither  Pym, 
Hampden,  Sir  Harry  Vane,  nor  Cromwell  could  surely  have  de- 
sired the  subjection  of  a  country  they  had  once  regarded  as  an 
asylum,  to  the  arbitrary  jurisdiction  of  the  one  they  had  wished 
to  fly  from,  it  must  have  been  to  Charles  H.  and  his  yearning  for 
a  personal  government  that  we  owed  the  royal  assent  to  the  Navi- 
gation Act  in  which  King  and  Parliament  were  associated  to- 
gether. That  association,  he  maintained,  was  forced  on  a  mon- 
arch who  had  learned  from  doleful  experience  that  Parliaments 
were  not  to  despised,  but  who,  though  compelled  to  a  union  he 
abhorred,  accepted  it  with  the  purpose  of  making  his  coadjutor 
his  instrument  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  designs.  Charles  H., 
he  said,  courted  Parliament  as  a  mistress  ;  his  successors  em- 
braced her  as  a  wife,  at  least  for  the  purpose  of  enslaving  Ameri- 
ca. From  that  unhappy  union  had  flowed  all  the  ill  which  a 
Parliamentary  government,  not  their  own,  could  inflict.  In  short, 
the  attempt  now  being  made  was  simply  one  of  arbitrary  power 


244  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

against  the  natural  self-government  of  the  people.     Suffer  it  to  be 
done,  and  colonial  liberty  was  at  an  end.* 

Such  is  the  imperfect  sketch  of  an  argument  which  placed  its 
maker,  at  one  bound,  at  the  head  of  colonial  advocates,  elevated 
him  to  a  place  in  the  highest  rank  of  patriots,  and  enrolled  him 
among  the  Americans  whose  fame  is  deathless.  This  is  all  that 
is  left  to  us  of  what  produced  a  most  powerful  effect  upon  those 
who  heard  it,  and  of  what  unquestionably  changed  the  destiny  of 
this  country.  We  cannot  possibly  now  reproduce  this  speech 
from  what  we  have  of  it.  It  was  not  committed  to  writing,  nor 
was  it  reported.  All  we  have  are  the  notes  jotted  down  at  the 
time  by  a  young  man,  who,  swayed  by  the  overpowering  elo- 
quence of  the  orator,  was  unable  to  keep  up  with  his  work  ;  the 
partial  reproduction  of  the  speech  by  the  same  youth  in  after 
life,'  and  his  recollections,  given  when  an  octogenarian  and  fifty- 
seven  years  after  its  delivery.  Yet  even  then,  though  in  the 
meantime  he  had  himself  become  one  of  his  country's  greatest 
orators,  and  was  one  to  whom  the  eloquence  of  the  greatest  and 
best  of  the  civilized  world  had  become  familiar,  even  then  the 
breast  of  the  old  man  was  instinct  with  the  memories  of  that  day, 
and  the  aged  heart  of  John  Adams  was  fired  anew  at  the  recol- 
lection of  James  Otis*  denunciation  of  the  writs  of  assistance. 
After  that  lapse  of  time,  the  wonder  is,  not  that  we  have  an  im- 
perfect sketch,  but  that  we  have  any,  and  were  it  not  for  the  re- 
markable intellect  of  him  who  sought  to  transmit  it,  we  should 
have  none. 

Whether  the  colonists,  whose  prejudices  were  naturally  in  favor 
of  the  orator,  exaggerated  the  excellence  of  his  speech,  or, 
whether,    astonished   and    delighted  at    such  unaccustomed  elo- 

'In  giving  this  sketch  of  Otis'  speech,  I  have  adopted  as  nearly  as  possible 
the  notes  and  accounts  of  John  Adams,  even  in  language.  Adams  made  min- 
utes of  the  speech  during  its  delivery,  though,  as  he  says  in  his  autobiography, 
"  I  was  much  more  attentive  to  the  information  and  the  eloquence  of  the  speaker 
than  to  my  minutes,  and  too  much  alarmed  at  the  prospect  that  was  opened  be- 
fore me  to  care  much  about  writing  a  report  of  the  controversy."  "Diary, 
Life  and  Works,"  ii,  124,  n.  Then  comes  the  speech  as  given  in  Minot's 
"  History,"  which  may  be  found,  expurgated  from  interpolations,  in  the  same 
work,  Appendix  A,  523.  This  is  also  attributed  to  Mr.  Adams.  And  lastly, 
his  sketch  of  it  given  in  his  letters  to  Judge  Tudor,  fifty-seven  years  after  its 
delivery,  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  same  work,  x,  pp.  314,  et  seq, 

'  Id.  ii,  Appendix  A,  523, 


THE  AWAKENING,  24$ 

quence,  they  magnified  its  worth,  we  have  now  no  means  of  judg- 
ing. There  is,  however,  no  mistaking  its  effect.  The  judge 
appointed  for  the  purpose  of  sanctioning  the  writ  was  dumb  be- 
fore the  orator,  the  bar  hung  upon  every  word,  the  audience  was 
still  to  catch  every  breath,  and  his  very  opponent,  once  his  mas- 
ter in  the  law,  could  not  conceal  his  delight  in  meeting  a  foeman 
so  worthy  of  his  steel,  nor  restrain  his  generous  exultation  at  the 
glory  and  triumph  of  his  pupil. 

But  it  was  upon  the  people  throughout  the  colonies  that  this 
speech  wrought  its  greatest  effect  ;  an  effect  which  deepened  its 
channel  as  it  made  its  way.  The  patience  which  had  taken 
apart,  analyzed  and  compared  the  different  statutes,  and  then 
had  gathered  them  together  into  one  system,  had  not  been 
wasted.  The  clearness  with  which  the  facts  were  stated  and 
the  inferences  drawn,  had  not  been  in  vain.  The  passionate  ap- 
peal to  justice  fell  not  to  the  ground,  nor  did  the  scorn  which 
lashed  the  evil-wishers  of  his  country  lie  dead  in  the  ears  of  its 
friends.  Although  the  question  was  one  which  arose  in  Massa- 
chusetts only,  its  importance  was  felt  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of 
the  colonies.  Attention  was  at  once  turned  upon  the  subject  of 
colonial  relations  with  the  mother-country  ;  a  subject  which 
nearly  all  had  slept  upon,  until  Otis  broke  this  dangerous  slumber, 
and  bade  them  awake.  Then  all  awoke  :  those  who  were  not  of 
the  mercantile  interest  as  well  as  those  who  were  ;  and  these 
relations,  what  they  were,  what  their  nature,  were  they  proper, 
and,  if  not,  what  the  remedies  readiest  for  their  restoration,  but, 
if  they  were,  what  the  defences  best  for  their  protection, — these, 
and  a  hundred  questions  more,  became  the  subjects  of  universal 
comment  and  reflection.  Henceforth  it  will  be  seen  not  only  that 
the  colonists  acted  as  those  who  had  studied  their  ground,  but 
that  the  indifference  or  ignorance  of  the  old  world  concerning 
their  attainments,  or  even  their  existence,  gave  way  to  admira- 
tion for  the  extent  of  their  researches  and  the  depth  of  their 
learning.  This  result,  especially  in  the  northern  colonies,  where 
the  illustration  stood  ready  for  the  argument,  was  due  to  the  elo- 
quence and  logic  of  James  Otis.  When  he  sat  down  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  had  been  inaugurated.  Doubtless  neither  he,  his 
hearers,  the  people,  nor  the  government,  suspected  such  a  thing : 
but  we  now  know  it  to  be  the  fact.     The  war  which,  in  securing 


246  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

our  independence,  gained  the  name  of  Revolution,  was  but  the 
last  expression  of  that  mighty  change  of  which  Otis'  was  the  first. 
That  terminated  what  this  began,'  but  this  was  what  foretold  the 
coming  storm,  and  the  last  words  of  the  orator  had  hardly  died 
away,  before  the  real  American  Revolution  had  set  in." 

*  Les  revolutions  que  conforme  la  liberie  ne  sont  qu'  une  confirmation  de  la 
liberte."     "  Esprit  des  Lois,"  liv.  xix,  chap,  xxvii. 

*  *'  I  shall  only  say,  and  I  do  say  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  Mr.  Otis' 
oration  against  the  Writs  of  Assistance  breathed  into  this  nation  the  breath  of 
life."     "  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,"  x,  276. 


CHAPTER   X. 
The  Conflict  with  Absolutism. 

AT  the  next  term  the  court  decided,  that,  inasmuch  as  it 
appeared  that  such  writs  issued  from  the  Exchequer  when 
applied  for,  the  like  practice  in  the  province  was  warranted ' ;  yet 
the  government  found  no  advantage  in  a  decision  robbed  before- 
hand of  its  effect.  It,  accordingly,  desisted  from  this  attempt, 
and,  while  there  may  have  been  applications,  no  such  writ  ever 
issued. 

The  government  held  the  position,  but  could  make  no  use  of  it 
further  than  as  a  ground  on  which  to  parade  the  rights  adjudi- 
cated in  their  favor  by  judges,  whom  the  irritated  people  regarded 
as  commissioned  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  as  they  did.  This 
half-way  course  of  action  was  the  most  ill-judged  one  that  could 
be  adopted.  One  only  of  two  things  should  have  been  done  : 
either  to  enforce  the  writ  now  that  the  court  had  decided  they 
were  in  the  right,  or  openly  to  abandon  a  policy  which  had  been 
proved  to  be  odious.  If  the  former  had  been  adopted,  the  colo- 
nists would  have  at  once  been  driven  to  submission  or  resistance. 
Resistance  was  out  of  the  question,  for  the  cause  of  Massachusetts 
not  being  a  common  one,  except  in  sentiment  not  yet  fully  formed, 
she  would  have  had  to  stand  alone,  and,  incapable  of  resisting 
singly,  submission  would  have  been  her  fate,  and  the  power  of 
the  government  would  have  been  established.  If  the  latter  course 
had  been  pursued,  Massachusetts  would  have  had  nothing  to  op- 
pose, but  on  the  contrary  there  would  have  been  every  considera- 
tion of  gratitude  to  bind  her  with  hooks  of  steel  to  a  parent  who, 
with  the  right  to  pursue  her  course  solemnly  adjudicated,  had 

'Hutchinson's  "  Hist,  of  Mass.,"  iii,  94. 

247 


248  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

generously  renounced  a  policy  distasteful  to  her  offspring.  But, 
the  truth  is,  that  the  government  did  not  fully  appreciate  the 
importance  of  the  occasion  and  the  need  of  discretion.  .Three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean  and  the  lapse  of  a  month's  duration  so 
deadened  the  waves  of  colonial  excitement,  that,  when  they  fell 
upon  the  ear  in  Whitehall,  they  hardly  created  a  sensation.  The 
government  was  continually  seeking  increase  of  revenue  in  one 
quarter  or  another,  and  disappointment  was  a  common  affair. 
This  Boston  matter  was  one  of  a  dozen  such  cases,  and  no  more. 
"  The  people  do  not  like  this  way  of  raising  revenue,  though  the 
courts  say  we  are  right !  Well,  we  are  constantly  humoring  others, 
and  we  suppose  we  must  humor  these.  Do  not  act  on  this  de- 
cision of  the  court,  then,  but  hold  it  in  reserve,  and,  in  the  mean- 
time, let  us  try  something  else."  Such  was,  in  effect,  the  way  the 
matter  was  regarded  and  acted  upon,  and,  like  all  half-measures, 
this  indefinite  way  of  settling  a  question  produced  bitter  fruit. 
To  the  Bostonians,  this  pigeon-holing  what  to  them  was  of  the 
greatest  interest  and  of  the  highest  importance,  was  either  incom- 
prehensible or  offensive.  Was  the  government  irresolute  ?  was 
it  indifferent  ?  Was  it  letting  I  would,  wait  upon  I  dare  not  ?  Had 
it  abandoned  the  offensive  policy?  or  was  it  holding  it  like  a 
sword  over  their  heads  in  case  future  exactions  brought  no  favor- 
able answers  ? 

During  this  state  of  uncertainty  a  general  sense  of  uneasiness 
spread  over  the  colonies.  For  the  first  time  something  had  really 
come  between  the  mother  and  her  children,  and  distrust  had  taken 
root.  The  attempt  to  enforce  the  Sugar  Acts  as  revenue  laws 
could  not  be  forgotten  in  a  day  ;  indeed,  there  was  nothing  to 
hinder  its  repetition,  and  it  was  but  too  apparent,  that,  instead  of 
being  one  and  the  same  with  that  of  England,  the  spirit  of  the 
colonies  was  now  something  different.  Dissension  had  entered 
the  camp,  and,  though  there  was  no  conflict,  there  were,  without 
contradiction,  two  parties  whose  leaders,  while  on  their  faces 
friends,  mistrusted  each  other  in  their  hearts,  and  sulked  in  their 
tents.  Confidence  was  gone.  What  will  the  government  do  next? 
was  the  apprehensive  whisper  throughout  America.  What  next 
step  toward  revenue  from  the  colonies  shall  we  take  ?  was  the 
question  asked  at  Westminster. 

George  Grenville,  at  that  time  the  leader  of  the  ministry,  was 


GEORGE  GRENVILLE,  249 

the  man  who  answered  these  questions.  He  was  intelligent,  edu- 
cated, well-meaning,  honest,  and  of  official  experience,  but  he  was 
narrow.  He  was  ambitious,  but  lacking  in  judgment,  and  was 
more  disposed  to  found  the  acts  of  his  administration  on  legislation, 
than  on  the  qualities  of  human  nature.  Indeed,  his  great  fault 
seems  to  have  been  his  over-weening  faith  in  legislation  being  the 
do-all  of  government;  for  he  was  of  those,  says  Burke,  who  are  apt 
to  believe  regulation  to  be  commerce,  and  taxes  to  be  revenue,* 
and,  he  might  have  added,  who  believe  legislation  to  be  govern- 
ment. Among  regulations,  none  stood  so  high  in  Grenville's 
estimation  as  the  Navigation  Act,  and,  confounding  causes  with 
ejects,  like  many  of  his  countrymen,  he  considered  those  elements 
of  prosperity  which  gave  efficacy  to  the  Navigation  Act,  the  legiti- 
mate results  of  the  Act  itself. 

Mr.  Grenville's  idea  seems  to  have  been,  that  the  late  war  be- 
tween England  and  France  had  been  undertaken  as  much  for  the 
benefit  of  the  colonies  as  for  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  that  it  was 
nothing  more  than  just,  that  they  who  shared  the  benefits  'should 
also  bear  a  part  of  the  burdens  it  had  brought.  No  position 
could  be  more  substantial  than  this,  and,  had  he  confined  himself 
to  it,  no  fault  could  have  been  found  ;  for  their  sense  of  oneness 
with  Great  Britain,  as  we  can  see  for  ourselves,  did  impress  them 
with  the  belief,  that  what  was  done  for  the  mother-country  was 
done,  too,  for  them,  and  that,  consequently,  the  burden  must  be 
shared  as  well  as  the  benefit.  But  when  he  took  the  ground,  that 
the  colonies  had  not  done  their  share,  but  were  reaping  the  bene- 
fit without  dividing  the  burden,  he  went  further  than  the  facts 
warranted  his  going,  and  his  position  became  untenable.  For,  in 
the  prosecution  of  that  war,  as  well  as  others,  the  Americans  had 
not  only  suffered  great  losses  of  men  and  property,  but  they  had 
incurred  debts,  the  greater  part  of  which  fell  on  the  northern 
colonies,  who  had  promptly  met  them,  and  who,  even  at  that  time, 
were  steadily  paying  them  off.  This  very  colony  of  Massachu- 
setts, for  instance,  at  the  time  of  the  Port  Duty  act,  was  annually 
raising  what,  for  the  time  and  place,  was  the  large  sum  of  ;£37,5oo 
sterling  for  sinking  her  debt,  and  this  she  expected  and  intended 
to  do  for  four  years  longer,  or  until  it  was  entirely  cleared  off. 

Thus    Mr.    Grenville   acted    on    premises   that   were    radically 

*  Speech  "On  American  Taxation." 


250  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

wrong.  He  beheld  what  did  not  exist,  and  saw  not  what  did. 
What  alone  was  perfectly  clear  to  him,  was  his  inabihty  to  meet 
the  annual  demands  of  the  public  debt,  and  the  scene  presented 
to  his  eyes  embraced  an  enlarged  military  and  naval  establish- 
ment on  a  new  footing,  an  enormous  increase  of  Great  Britain's 
indebcedness,  and  an  insufficient  revenue.^  Beyond  this  valley  of 
Desolation,  however,  stretched  the  pleasant  land  of  Beulah,  where 
the  colonists,  untaxed  for  revenue,  were  rapidly  rolling  up  wealth. 
To  a  man  whose  notions  of  prosperity  were  limited  to  the  effects 
of  a  Navigation  Act,  the  sight  was  tantalizing,  and  the  thought 
naturally  recurred,  Why  should  these  people  go  scot  free,  while  we 
are  still  bearing  the  burdens  imposed  by  their  defence  ? 

Now,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  not  going  scot  free  ;  for  these 
people  were  at  that  time  bearing  their  share  of  the  burden  by  pay- 
ing debts,  to  sink  which  they  were  annually  taxing  themselves  ; 
were  paying  vast  profits  to  England  on  their  trade,  which,  without 
her,  they  would  not  have  had  to  pay ;  and  were  subject  to  enor- 
mous indirect  taxation  besides.'  Nor  was  that  war  nor  any  other, 
fought  for  the  defence  of  the  colonies,  but  solely  for  the  purposes 
of  the  home  government ;  purposes  with  which  the  colonists  had 
no  more  to  do  than  the  people  of  the  United  Stales  to-day  have 
to  do  with  those  of  Downing  Street,  but  which  they  were  com- 
pelled to  further,  unless  they  would  have  their  commerce  endan- 
gered, their  frontiers  ablaze,  and  their  homes  at  the  mercy  of  the 
savage.  In  America,  the  armies  of  England  were  not  defensive 
but  invading  armies,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  defence,  the  colonist 
had  to  rely  upon  himself  alone.  But  it  is  none  the  less  a  fact,  that, 
at  that  time,  the  burden  of  the  colonists  was  really  lighter  than  the 
burden  of  those  who  had  caused  its  imposition  ;  for,  with  their 
debts  reduced  by  actual  payment,  and  with  the  future  certain  to 
supply  what  was  needed  for  their  extinction,  they  had  nothing  but 
a  short  probation  of  indebtedness  to  undergo,  and  nothing  more 
to  fear  than  creditors  whose  only  ill-nature  might  arise  from  the 
impending  termination  of  loans  they  could  not  expect  to  renew. 
This  happy  result  had  been  attained  by  their  having  promptly 

^  The  English  debt  was  doubled  by  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  amounted  to 
;,^ 1 40, 000, 000. — Pari.  Hist.:  *' Mag.  of  Am.  Hist.,"  341.  Burke's  "Speech 
on  American  Taxation." 

''The  colonies  annually  consumed  British  produce  and  manufactures  to  the 
value  of  ;^3,ooo,ooo. — "Am.  Reg.,"  part  i,  1764. 


COLONIAL  BURDENS.  2$  I 

faced  and  ascertained  their  liabilities,  by  their  careful  collection 
of  taxes,  by  their  economy,  by  the  assistance  brought  by  immigra- 
tion, and  by  the  absence  of  internal  distraction  which  the  confi- 
dence, everywhere  reposed  in  charters  guarding  them  in  their 
rights  and  exempting  them  from  imperial  taxation,  secured. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that  the  colonists,  whose  generous  conduct 
during  the  war  found  its  acknowledgment  in  the  reimbursements 
to  them  by  Great  Britain  of  advances  made  by  them,*  were  now 
bearing  the  part  of  their  burden  which  remained,  and  that,  though 
the  mother-country  might  not  be,  they  were  entitled  to  the  full 
enjoyment  of  their  share  of  the  benefits  accrued,  less  their  share 
of  the  common  burden  still  remaining.  It  was  the  sight  of  this 
enjoyment,  almost  at  its  full,  and  the  contrast  it  presented  to  her 

^  "  26  April,  1759.  The  King  sent  a  message  to  the  House  of  Commons  re- 
questing them  to  enable  him  to  compensate  the  North  American  colonies  for 
*  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  respective  Provinces,  in  the  Levying,  Clothing, 
and  Pay  of  the  troops  raised  by  the  same.'  The  motive  assigned  was  *the  zeal 
and  vigor  with  which  his  faithful  subjects  in  North  America  have  exerted  them- 
selves ill  defence  of  His  Majesty's  just  rights  and  Possessions.'  Upon  which, 
April  30,  the  House  resolved  an  appropriation  of  ^^200,000.  This  message  and 
resolution  was  repeated  yearly  thereafter,  and  though  this  compensation  did  not 
exceed  one-fourth  of  their  expenditure,  they  were  satisfied  with  *  these  most 
honorable  of  all  testimonies.'  " — "A  True  State  of  the  Proceedings,"  etc.,  1774. 

As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  century,  concerning  New  England's  action 
respecting  the  Canada  expeditions,  Dummer  says  :  "It  has  been  acknowledged 
to  me  by  English  gentlemen  who, were  then  on  the  spot  and  well  experienced  in 
these  things,  that  such  a  fleet  and  army  wanting  the  necessaries  they  did,  could 
not  have  been  dispatched  on  so  short  warning  from  any  port  in  England." — 
'*  Defence  of  the  N.  E.  Charters,"  40  ;  and  see  Otis'  "  Vindication,"  etc.,  g. 

*'  Massachusetts  raised  500  men  for  the  Cuba  [Jamaica,  1703]  expedition,  of 
whom  not  50  returned." — "  Observations  relating  to  the  Present  Circumstances 
of  Mass.  Bay,"  4.  "  The  most  expensive  expedition  was  that  to  Cape  Breton,  in 
which  Massachusetts  expended  almost  2,000,000,  old  tenor,  a  sum  vastly  exceed- 
ing its  ability,  and  which  nothing  but  the  last  extremity  could  excuse  :  an  ex- 
tremity not  only  affecting  Massachusetts,  but  the  whole  continent  besides,  and 
in  which  the  trade  of  the  English  nation,  both  with  regard  to  the  cod  fisheiy,  and 
also  its  Navigation  to  the  Northern  Colonies,  was  deeply  interested.  In  this  Ex- 
pedition we  almost  made  ourselves  Bankrupts,  not  only  with  respect  to  money, 
but  also  with  regard  to  Labour,  the  worst  bankruptcy  that  a  community  can 
suffer  ;  for  we  expended  thousands  of  lives,  which  were  lost  on  the  surrender  of 
Louisburg,  who  were  some  of  the  Flower  of  the  People. 

"Another  expedition  in  which  we  were  at  great  expense  was  that  designed  for 
Canada,  and  recommended  from  the  Crown,  and  although  the  scheme  was  not 
executed,  yet  Bounty  money  and  billeting  2,000  men  could  be  very  ill  spared 
by  a  people  already  drained  of  men  and  money." — Id.,  4.  5. 

The  colonists  rallied  to  the  support  of  Pitt  with  enthusiasm.  They  vied  in 
voting  men  and  money.  Dr.  Franklin  says  that  the  number  of  Americans  or 
Provincials  employed  in  the  war  was  greater  than  that  of  the  regulars,  and  else- 
where, that  "  the  Colonies  had  raised,  paid,  and  clothed  near  25,000  men,  a 
number  equal  to  those  sent  from  Great  Britain,  and  far  beyond  their  propor- 
tion."— "Mag.  of  Am.  Hist.,"  i,  338,  339. 


252  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

own  condition,  that  had  much  to  do  with  stimulating  England  to 
take  from  America  what  the  latter  had  earned  and  was  fairly- 
entitled  to. 

It  has  always  been  a  marvel,  and  one,  too,  that  will  never  be 
explained,  how  the  eyes  of  the  minister  could  have  been  blind  to 
the  fact,  which  stared  him  in  the  face  on  each  recurring  budget, 
that  the  Americans  had  really  borne  more  than  their  share  of  the 
war,  and  that  Great  Britain  was  so  sensible  of  this,  as  actually 
to  reimburse  them  for  their  over-payments.  But  so  it  was,  and 
possessed  with  the  conviction,  that,  on  the  score  of  the  war,  it 
was  America  that  was  in  debt  to  England  and  not  England  to 
America,  he  set  to  work  to  devise  means  of  drawing  revenue  from 
the  colonies. 

It  will  be  observed,  that,  heretofore,  the  administration  had 
limited  its  experiments  to  what  already  existed,  and,  seeking  to 
enforce  those  acts  of  revenue  only  which  were  then  upon  the 
statute  book,  had  directed  its  procedure  against  a  single  colony. 
The  boundaries  of  its  operations  were  thus  defined  beforehand, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  lack  of  absolute  certainty,  this  self-im- 
posed restraint  lent  some  assurance  to  the  future.  The  cabinet, 
however,  was  not  permitted  to  long  retain  the  passive  attitude  it 
had  assumed  after  its  failure.  The  need  of  revenue  daily  became 
more  pressing,  until  at  last  something  had  to  be  done  and  a 
decisive  step  be  taken  :  a  bill  was  accordingly  introduced  and 
passed  "granting  duties  in  the  colonies  and  plantations  of 
America."  This  occurred  in  1764,  and  the  act  imposed  other 
port  duties  than  those  already  laid.  Strange  to  say,  the  enact- 
ment of  this  bill,  known  as  the  Port  Duty  Act  provoked  little 
censure  in  America,  although,  in  addition  to  its  ominous  title,  it 
declared,  "  that  it  was  just  and  necessary  that  a  revenue  should  be 
raised  there,"  and  contained  the  positive  words  of  donation, 
namely,  "  giving  and  granting "  ;  and  this,  too,  notwithstanding 
the  wording  of  the  preamble,  that  the  Commons  were  "desirous 
to  make  some  provision  in  the  present  session  of  Parliament 
towards  raising  the  said  revenue^''  should  have  warned  the  colo- 
nists that  Parliament,  which  thus  asserted  its  supremacy,  was 
already  committing  their  fortunes  to  the  uncertain  fluctuations  of 
future  need.  Such,  however,  was  the  fact,  and  expressions  soon 
to  be  recurred  to  in  wrath  and  passion  fell    almost  unnoticed. 


PORT  DUTY  ACT:    THE  RESOLUTION.  253 

This  marvel  may  be  accounted  for  by  reason  of  the  attack  not 
being  a  direct  one,  by  the  principle  not  being  objectionable,  by 
the  process  being  one  to  which  the  colonists  were  more  or  less 
accustomed,  and  by  the  distinction  between  external  and  internal 
taxes  operating  in  its  favor.  Thus,  though  disguised  by  a  new 
title  and  differing  in  features  from  its  predecessors,  the  measure 
met  with  customary  recognition.*  The  most  probable  reason, 
however,  is,  that  it  was  lost  to  view  or  confounded  with  what 
appeared  simultaneously  with  it,  and  which,  applying  to  all  the 
colonies  alike,  raised  such  a  gust  of  passionate  protestation,  that 
every  thing  that  concerned  the  subject  was  borne  before  the  blast 
in  one  commingled  cloud.     A  great  storm  was  now  impending. 

This  commotion  was  excited  by  the  passage  of  a  Resolution 
which  set  forth,  that,  in  the  colonies,  "it  may  be  proper  to  charge 
certain  stamp  duties  as  are  now  paid  in  England,"  and  which 
contained  a  notice  that  a  bill  to  that  effect  would  be  introduced 
during  the  ensuing  year. 

Mr.  Grenville  cannot  certainly  be  charged  with  making  haste  to 
do  evil.  His  march  was  as  deliberate  as  was  his  determination  to 
cast  off  the  old  policy  and  to  adopt  the  new.  Under  the  guise  of 
giving  the  colonies  ample  notice  to  adapt  their  affairs  to  the  new 
order  of  things,  he  reserved  to  himself  all  the  time  he  desired  to 
observe  the  effect  of  his  shot.  It  must  not  be  supposed,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  wedded  to  Stamp  duties  to  the  exclusion  of  any 
other  means  of  raising  revenue.  These  were  adopted  only  be- 
cause they  appeared  at  the  time  to  be  the  best  of  all  the  means 

*  Burke,  '*  Speech  on  Am.  Taxation."  In  Massachusetts,  however,  where  Otis 
had  enlightened  the  people,  the  protest  was  emphatic  enough,  as  the  following 
resolution  of  its  Assembly  shows  : — "  That  the  sole  right  of  giving  and  granting 
the  Money  of  the  people  of  that  province  was  vested  in  them  as  their  legal  rep- 
resentatives ;  and  that  the  imposition  of  Duties  and  Taxes,  by  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  upon  a  people  who  are  not  represented  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, is  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  their  rights.  That  no  man  can  justly 
take  the  property  of  another  without  his  consent,  upon  which  original  principle 
the  right  of  representation  in  the  same  body  which  exercises  the  power  of  mak- 
ing laws  for  levying  taxes,  one  of  the  main  Pillars  of  the  British  constitution,  is 
evidently  founded  :  That  the  extension  of  the  Powers  of  the  Court  of  Admiralty 
within  this  Province  is  a  most  violent  infraction  of  the  trial  by  Jury, — a  right 
which  this  house,  upon  the  principles  of  their  British  Ancestors,  hold  most  dear 
and  sacred,  it  being  the  only  security  of  the  lives,  liberties,  and  property  of  his 
Majesty's  subjects :  That  this  House  owe  the  strictest  allegiance  to  his  most 
sacred  Majesty,  King  George  HI. — and  that  they  have  the  greatest  veneration 
for  the  Parliament."  "A  true  State  of  the  Proceedings  in  tlie  Parliament,  and 
in  the  Mass.-Bay,"  5,  6. 


254  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

proposed.  He  was  perfectly  willing  to  substitute  another  which 
would  produce  the  same  results,  and  he  even  assured  a  member  of 
Parliament,  as  well  as  the  agents  of  the  colonies,  whom  he  brought 
together  for  the  purpose,  that,  if  they  would  name  any  other  duty 
equally  productive,  but  more  to  their  taste,  he  would  readily  com- 
ply with  their  wishes.  One  thing,  though,  was  to  be  well  under- 
stood, that  this  was  only  a  choice  of  taxes,  and  must  not  become 
a  question  of  principle,  for  on  that  point  his  mind  was  made  up, 
and  if  the  Americans  objected  to  being  taxed  by  Parliament, 
they  might  save  themselves  the  trouble  of  discussing  what  he  had 
already  determined  upon.* 

After  this  curt  announcement  that  the  ancient  system,  which 
regarded  the  colonies  as  tributary  to  England  only  in  respect  of 
commerce,  was  at  an  end,  and  that  the  government  had  already 
substituted  another  under  which  they  were  to  be  viewed  likewise 
as  sources  of  revenue,  there  was  nothing  left  for  the  colonists  to 
do  but  to  look  out  for  themselves.  The  feeling  which  was  aroused 
by  the  news  burst  forth  at  once  from  every  part  of  the  land.  Un- 
like the  case  of  the  Writs  of  Assistance,  this  was  a  measure  which 
concerned  all  the  colonies  alike."  The  colonists  everywhere  took 
but  one  ground — that  their  territory  was  a  part  of  the  British 
Empire ;  that  they  themselves  were  British  subjects  ;  that  Britons 
could  not  be  taxed  without  representation  ;  that  they  were  not 
represented  ;  and  that,  consequently,  this  Act,  in  taxing  them 
without  their  consent,  was  illegal  and  tyrannical.^  Should  the 
secretary  of  state  request  aid,  as  heretofore,  in  the  king's  name, 
their  legislatures  would  grant  it  ;  but  that  must  be  their  own  act, 
and  not  another's.  The  tribal  love  of  self-government  had  never 
before  spoken  out  more  distinctly  or  more  ])ositively.  Massachu- 
setts and  New  York  sent  remonstrances — they  were  laid  on  the 
table  ;  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and 

*  *'  In  rei^ard  to  the  fifteenth  resohilion  relating  to  the  Stamp  duty,  it  will 
certainly  pass  next  session  unless  the  Americans  offer  a  more  certain  duty.  Had 
not  William  Allen  Esq,,  been  here  indefatigable  in  opposing  it,  ami  happily 
made  acquaintances  with  the  first  personages  in  the  Kingdom  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  would  certainly  have  passed  this  session." 
•*  Lett,  fr.  London,"  N.  V.  Mercury,  June  4.  1764,  And  see  Ld.  Mahon's 
"  Hist.  Engd.,"  chap,  xliii,  and  Burke's  "  Speech  on  Am.  Taxation." 

'  See  Otis'  "  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  Asserted  and  Proved"  ;  though 
he  admits  the  riyht  to  tax. 

'  See  the  "  Virginia  Resolves,"  passed  the  following  spring. 


THE   STAMP  ACT,  255 

Jamaica  presented  petitions — they  were  rejected  in  scorn  without 
a  reading,  they  were  not  so  much  as  received,  and,  on  the  2 2d  of 
March,  1765,  by  a  Parliament  which  had  been  deaf  to  Barre, 
and  whose  average  attendance  was  not  increased  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  any  measure  of  especial  importance  being  before  it,  the 
Stamp  Act  was  passed,*  and  the  members  went  tranquilly  home. 
The  ministry  was  delighted,  and  the  king  gave  a  joyful  assent. 

It  was  not  until  October,  that  England  heard  of  the  reception 
the  Act  was  meeting  in  America  ;  and  what  she  heard  was  simply 
amazing :  Parliamentary  absolutism  had  met  a  rebuff  at  the 
very  outset.  Had  a  volcano  suddenly  upheaved  the  quiet  fields 
of  Warwickshire,  the  spectacle  could  not  be  more  bewildering  to 
English  minds  than  what  the  drowsy  communities  of  merchants 
and  planters  across  the  Atlantic  then  presented.  Commotion 
reigned  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  Deep,  intense 
feeling  prevaded  all  ranks,  and  for  a  time,  it  appears,  profound 
silence  had  brooded  over  the  land.  Then,  as  with  a  rush  of 
mighty  waters,  the  whole  mass  was  in  motion.  Tolling  bells 
called  the  people  together,  who,  in  injured  tones,  broke  away  from 
the  calm  expostulation  of  decorous  petition,  and  spoke,  in  indig- 
nant accents,  the  broken  utterances  of  outraged  feelings.  Sons 
of  Liberty  harangued  clubs  of  patriots.  Flags  were  at  half-mast. 
Bands  paraded  the  streets  playing  dirges.  Death's  heads  grinned 
from  the  newspapers,  above  whose  heavy  black  lines  stretched  a 
serpent  in  pieces,  with  the  motto,  "Join  or  Die!"  Ships  were 
stopped  in  the  lower  bays  until  search  proved  them  harmless. 
The  effigies  of  tax-collectors  hung  from  trees  ,  those  of  a 
hated  ministry  went  up  in  showers  of  sparks  and  cinders  from 
pyres  around  which  the  rabble  jeered  and  hooted.  Mobs  roared 
in  the  streets,  and  honored  officials,  whose  only  crime  lay  in  the 
fact,  that,  if  this  obnoxious  law  were  carried  out,  they  were  the 
ones  to  execute  it,  were  cut  by  their  neighbors,  insulted  by  the 
populace,  and  at  last  forced  to  precipitate  flight.  Governors,  the 
representatives  of  Majesty  itself,  leaped  from  the  rear  of  buildings 
whose  fronts  were  already  smashed  in,  and  whose  contents,  five 
minutes  after,  were  piled  in  the  mud  in  indistinguishable  heaps ; 
and  custom-house  officers,  trembling  at  the  sight  of  the  halter, 
which  danizled  from  the  tree  before  the  door,  called  God  to  wit- 

*  See  Appendix  G. 


256  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

ness  that  they  had  already  sent  in  their  resignations.  The  whole 
land  was  seething  and  boiling  over.  This  species  of  violence, 
however,  was  merely  sporadic  in  a  country  which  had  no  violent 
classes,  save  in  the  seaports,  and  it  was  soon  over.  It  quieted 
down  beneath  the  firm  and  determined  pressure  of  law  and  order, 
and  gave  way  to  conduct  much  more  significant.  Solemn  meetings 
were  held,  where  the  painful  silence  was  broken  by  the  tremulous 
tones  of  those  who  rose  to  lay  before  their  neighbors  their  rights  as 
subjects,  and  to  insist  upon  the  necessity  of  maintaining  them.  The 
coolest  and  best  were  there,  and  all  of  these  were  there  ;  the  profes- 
sional men  and  merchants  in  the  North,  the  planters  in  the  South. 
The  legislatures  resolved,  remonstrated,  and  appointed  committees 
to  correspond  with  each  other.  Some  strange  things  appeared  : 
the  word  "American  "  began  to  be  used  for  "colonist,"  and  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  there  was  a  flash  of  lightning  so  vivid 
that  dazed  and  startled  members  actually  cried  out.  Treason  ! — 
and  were  told  to  make  the  most  of  it.  But,  whether  the  assembly 
was  parliamentary  or  whether  it  was  merely  popular,  it  was  all  one. 
The  government  party  gave  way  before  the  rush.  People  and 
legislators'  had  but  one  notion  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  came  to 
but  one  resolution  respecting  it :  that  the  thing  was  accursed,  and 
that  they  would  have  none  of  it.  Whereupon,  when  Parliament 
met,  this  was  the  state  of  things  the  colonies  presented — no  man 
dared  to  take  it  upon  himself  to  distribute  the  stamps  ;  the  offices 
and  some  of  the  courts  were  closed,  and  no  public  business  could 
be  transacted  ;  private  business  was  wellnigh  suspended,  and  all 
America  was  as  one  man  against  the  government. 

But  the  people  by  no  means  confined  themselves  to  an  attitude 
of  passive  resistance.  A  very  positive  and  significant  fact  ap- 
peared. Nine  of  the  colonies  were  actually  sitting  together  in 
congress  in  New  York  :  the  four  remaining  being  in  full  sympathy 
with  them,  and  absent  only  through  the  successful  intrigue  of  the 
ministry  party.  This  congress,  a  stormy  one,  united  in  an  address 
to  the  King  and  a  petition  to  the  House  of  Commons,  both  of 
which  were  rejected,  and  a  hearing  refused,  on  the  ground  that 
they  emanated  from  a  body  unknown  to  the  Constitution  ;  a  good 

*  As  an  evidence  of  the  rapid  progress  of  public  opinion,  the  resolutions  of  the 
Massachusetts  House  were  adopted  unanimously;  though  Hutchinson  says  that 
three  fourths  of  those  who  voted  them  had,  only  a  session  before,  voted  an  ad- 
dress distinctly  recognizing  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies. 


REPEA L  OF  THE  STAMP  A CT :   THE  DECLARA  TOR  Y  ACT,    257 

reason  for  a  doubtful  act.  This  congress,  and  the  word  **  Ameri- 
can," were  the  most  ominous  things  of  all  the  apparitions  which 
walked  the  earth  the  dark  night  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

No  wonder  England  stood  aghast.  She  had,  however,  two 
things  in  her  favor  :  time  for  the  sober  second  thought,  and  a 
change  in  the  ministry  already  accomplished.  Parliament  would 
not  sit  for  business  until  the  14th  of  the  following  January,  and 
Grenville  had  gone  out  and  Rockingham  was  in.  This  change  in 
the  administration  could  not  but  be  acceptable  to  the  Americans, 
and  common-sense  would  have  a  chance  to  declare  itself  during 
the  time  that  remained  of  the  recess.  Both  conjectures  proved 
true.  The  friends  of  the  colonies  worked  hard  to  arouse  public 
opinion,  and  the  first  efforts  were  soon  seen  in  the  respectful  hear- 
ing given  to  English  merchants,  who  were  received  with  attention 
at  the  door  where  seven  great  colonies  had  been  turned  away. 
The  session  of  1766  is  memorable  for  the  debates  on  the  Stamp 
Act.  Pitt  urged  repeal,  immediate  repeal,  and  Rockingham, 
Dowdeswell,  and  Conway  seconded  him  v/ith  all  their  might ;  even 
Charles  Townshend  voted  for  it.  The  House  was  in  earnest,  and 
])romptly  consigned  the  subject  to  a  committee,  who,  for  six 
weeks,  industriously  collected  evidence  and  thoroughly  considered 
the  matter.  Then,  upon  their  report,  the  old  British  self-control 
and  common-sense  asserted  itself.  By  a  majority,  said  Burke, 
that  will  redeem  all  the  acts  ever  done  by  majorities  in  Parliament, 
it  repealed  the  Act,  and  the  ancient  colonial  system  was  reinstated. 
By  this  time  all  England  was  aroused,  and  the  crowd  which  filled 
the  lobbies  in  breathless  expectation,  burst  into  cheers  when  the 
result  was  announced. 

The  news  was  sent  off  to  the  colonies.  There  went  with  it,  it 
is  true,  a  Declaratory  Act  which  asserted  the  right  to  tax  ;  but  in 
the  joy  of  the  moment  this  was  regarded  merely  as  a  bridge  pru- 
dently built  for  a  flying  enemy,  and,  pushed  out  of  sight,  was  as 
speedily  out  of  mind.  Every  ear  heard  but  the  cheers  in  the 
lobbies,  and  every  tongue  rung  but  one  word  "repeal."  The 
Americans  were  again  free  Britons,  and  in  the  common  gladness, 
bonfires  blazed  in  their  streets,  and  the  peals  from  the  steeples  of 
Christ  Church  and  the  Old  South  answered  the  merry-go-round 
of  Bow  Bells.  At  once  the  agitation  ceased.  People  and  Legis- 
lature outvied  each  other  in  assurances  of  reverence  for  the  Parlia- 


258  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY, 

ment  that  had  saved  their  liberties  from  itself,  and  in  protestations 
of  loyalty  to  the  best  of  kings,  who  could  hardly  control  himself 
sufficiently  to  sign  the  "  fatal  compliance."  God  had  interposed 
in  their  behalf  ;  the  Prince  of  Peace  himself  had  walked  the  waters, 
and,  at  his  word,  the  winds  went  down  and  the  waves  were  still. 

'  Four  new  facts,  which  were  powerfully  to  affect  the  destinies 
of  America,  constituted  the  outcome  of  the  Stamp  Act  matter. 
The  first  was  the  awakening  of  the  colonies  to  the  existence  of 
absolutism  which  had  for  its  object  the  curtailment  of  their  rights. 
The  second  was  a  sense  of  capacity  to  take  care  of  themselves  in 
the  senate  as  effectually  as  they  had  already  demonstrated  their 
ability  to  defend  themselves  in  the  field.  The  third  was  the 
universal  acceptation  of  what  until  then  had  been  doubted  and 
opposed,  that,  in  the  union  of  the  colonies  was  strength.  The 
fourth  was,  that  two  great  parties  sprung  into  existence  in  America. 
To  these  may  be  added,  not  as  a  positive  force,  but  as  an  accretion 
which  had  its  favorable  influences,  the  greater  appreciation  in 
England  of  American  character,  and  a  more  lively  sense  of  kinship 
with  Americans.  The  colonists  then  became  recognized,  by  the 
Whigs,  at  least,  as  something  more  than  mere  extremities  of  the 
body  of  which  England  was  the  head,  as  something  more  than 
mere  feeders  to  the  general  system,  and  as  having  brains  and 
character  of  their  own.  Between  them  and  the  Whigs  there 
sprung  up  a  strong  feeling  of  alliance,  and  the  time  was  not  far 
distant  when  statesmen  like  Chatham  and  Burke  shocked  insular 
prejudice  by  mentioning  their  senates  and  those  of  Athens  and 
Rome  in  the  same  breath. 

But,  alas  for  the  Declaratory  Act  !  It  was  the  wicked  fairy 
that  set  at  naught  all  the  precious  gifts  the  good  fairies  had  given 
the  little  princess.  When  they  had  departed,  she  remained,  and 
when  the  joy  over  what  had  been  lost  and  was  found  again  had 
died  away,  this  it  was  that  then  began  to  make  mischief.  In 
looking  back  r.pon  the  story  of  inose  days,  the  conviction  cannot 
be  avoided,  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  Declaratory  Act,  the 
independence  of  the  colonies  had  never  occurred.  There  would 
have  been  no  necessity,  no  provocai.on  for  such  a  step.  Without 
that  Act  the  triumph  over  absolutism  would  have  been  decisive. 
The  struggle  would  have  been  brief  and  even   less  eventful  than 


CHARLES  TOWNSIIEND.  259 

the  Revolution  of  1688  ;  )^et  the  result  would  have  been  as 
effectual  But,  as  it  was,  when  the  smoke  of  the  bonfires  had 
drifted  away  and  men  could  see  clearly,  it  was  evident,  that, 
though  the  measure  had  been  defeated,  the  hostile  principle 
remained.  Indeed,  it  was  too  plain,  that,  in  the  Declaratory  Act, 
absolutism  had  made  another  positive  assertion  of  its  determina- 
tion to  rule  ;  that  in  fact,  it  had  taken  a  long  step  forward.  This 
was  a  great  gain,  when  it  is  considered,  that,  for  the  first  time 
since  the  days  of  the  Tudors,  absolutism  was  favorably  recognized 
by  the  people  of  England  themselves,  and  that  their  determination 
to  enforce  it  had  been  actually  enrolled  in  their  archives.  Hereto- 
fore, it  had  been  but  a  disputed  question  ;  now,  it  became  a  living 
force  and  a  rule  of  action  for  British  power.  There  it  stood,  pro- 
claimed to  the  world,  and  no  one  could  go  behind  it  or  around  it. 
Absolutism  had  the  oyster  and  liberty  held  the  shell. 

Nevertheless  the  people  both  in  America  and  England  thought 
that  they  had  settled  things  on  the  old  foundation.  They  were 
not  permitted  to  hug  their  delusion  long.  In  a  short  time  Pitt 
entered  the  Lords,  and  Townshend  led  the  Commons. 

Charles  Townshend  was  a  man  whose  versatility  of  genius  was 
only  equalled  by  his  versatility  in  trimming.  He  was  not  fickle  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  was  steady  in  his  contempt  of  principle  and 
in  his  resolution  to  do  the  best  for  himself  with  whatever  hap- 
pened to  be  at  hand.  There  was  no  such  thing  in  the  man's 
whole  character  as  one  fixed  and  stable  political  principle,  unless 
it  were  that  all  profit,  and  all  glory,  should  enure  to  the  benefit  of 
England,  cost  what  it  might  to  the  rest  of  the  British  possessions  ; 
that  all  power  should  centre  in  the  throne  ;  and  that  all  distinc- 
tion should  rest  upon  himself.  His  contemporaries  styled  him 
"  the  Weathercock,"  and  it  is  doubtless  to  his  vacillating  dis- 
positior  which,  in  making  him  "  every  thing  by  turns  and  nothing 
long,"  prevented  the  identity  of  his  name  with  any  one  great 
principle,  that  is  owing  the  fact  of  his  posthumous  fame  being 
wholly  incommensurate  with  that  which  he  enjoyed  in  his  life- 
time. For,  the  mnn  who  carried  the  House  with  him  whenever 
he  opened  his  lips,  and  whose  memory  compelled  the  panegyric 
of  Burke,  did  enjoy  a  great,  a  very  great  reputation.  The  very 
audacity  wiih  which   Townshend    flung  his  glove  into  the  lists 


26o  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

challenged  the  admiration  of  the  spectators.  His  methods  were 
violent.  He  was  a  bundle  of  contrarities  ;  on  the  one  hand  he 
courted  opposition,  and  on  the  other  he  clung  to  the  majority. 
He  took  delight  in  coolly  shocking  received  notions  of  political 
conduct,  and  found  exquisite  pleasure  in  the  commotion  his 
effrontery  excited.  Arrogant,  imperious,  with  him  defiance  was 
the  sport  of  the  hour.  If  there  was  one  impulse  in  this  political 
ruffler  more  powerful  than  selfishness,  it  was  his  devotion  to  abso- 
lutism.    This  was  the  sole  mistress  to  whom  he  was  constant. 

Such  was  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  a  time  when, 
above  all  others,  it  was  necessary  that  the  true  relations  between 
the  mother-country  and  the  colonies  should  be  steadily  kept  in 
view,  when  the  temper  of  Britons  at  home  and  abroad  should  be 
thoroughly  understood,  when,  if  any  new  maxim  of  administra- 
tion were  to  be  adopted,  it  should  be  that  of  Bear  and  Forbear, 
and  when  the  art  of  healing  was  more  loudly  demanded  than  that 
of  estranging.  No  sooner  did  this  mischief-maker  become  the 
master  spirit  of  the  cabinet  than  he  showed  his  hand  ;  and  thus 
he  did  it : 

"  It  has  long  been  my  opinion,"  said  he  when  addressing  the 
House  a  i^^^  months  after  the  repeal,  "  that  America  should  be 
regulated  and  deprived  of  its  militating  and  contradictory  char- 
ters, and  its  royal  governors,  judges,  and  attorneys  be  rendered 
independent  of  the  people.  I,  therefore,  expect  that  the  present 
administration  will,  in  the  recess  of  Parliament,  take  all  necessary 
previous  steps  for  compassing  so  desirable  an  event.  *  *  * 
If  I  should  differ  in  judgment  from  the  present  administration 
on  this  point,  I  now  declare  that  I  must  withdraw.  *  *  *  j 
hope  and  expect  otherwise,  trusting  that  I  shall  be  an  instru- 
ment among  them  of  preparing  a  new  system."  *  He  declared 
himself  ready,  if  called  upon,  to  use  the  army  in  collecting  the 
revenue,  and,  that  there  should  be  no  misconstruction  put  upon 
his  vote  for  repeal,  he  averred  that  he  voted  for  it,  not  because 
the  Stamp  Act  was  not  a  good  measure,  but  because  repeal  was 
expedient.  Repeating  this  assertion  for  the  benefit  of  the  gal- 
leries, he  added  :  "  After  that,  I  do  not  expect  to  have  any  statue 
erected  in  America." 

Accordingly,  in  May,  1767,  there  were  introduced  into  Parlia- 

*  From  manuscript  report  in  *'  Bancroft,"  vi,  lO,  quoted  in  **  Frothingham,"  203. 


THE   TOWNSHEND  ACTS,  26 1 

merit  what  are  now  known  as  the  Townshend  Acts.  They  were 
passed  and  received  the  royal  assent,  though,  as  had  been  the  case 
with  the  Stamp  Act,  they  were  not  to  go  into  force  until  the  No- 
vember following  their  passage.  These  acts  imposed  duties  on 
glass,  paper,  painters'  colors,  and  tea  ;  they  established  a  Board 
of  Customs  at  Boston  for  the  collection  of  revenue  throughout 
America,  and  they  legalized  the  Writs  of  Assistance.  It  will  be 
seen  that  Townshend  did  not  deal  in  half-way  measures ;  he  went 
back  to  the  beginning,  and  he  went,  too,  further  forward  than  any 
one  had  ventured  to  suggest.  Not  only  was  revenue  directed  to 
be  collected,  but  the  machinery  for  collecting  it  went  out  in  the 
same  vessel  that  carried  the  authority  ;  and,  that  nothing  be  left 
upon  which  to  found  a  protest  or  an  evasion,  the  odious  Writs  of 
Assistance  were  brought  to  life  again  and  legalized.  But  the  Act 
which  imposed  duties  did  not  stop  at  mere  revenue  :  it  went 
further.  At  one  stroke  it  centralized  all  power  in  the  im- 
perial government  and  boldly  established  English  supremacy. 
This  was  done  at  a  ^stroke  by  stating  in  the  preamble,  that 
the  ensuing  duties  were  laid  for  the  purpose  of  providing  a  fund 
wherewith  to  maintain  the  colonial  governments  and  the  colonial 
defence  ;  the  inference  to  be  drawn  being,  that  the  act  would 
enure  to  the  benefit  of  the  colonies,  inasmuch  as  it  was  in- 
tended to  expend  there  the  moneys  so  raised,  in  paying  the  ex- 
penses of  the  governments  and  of  the  ':ourts,  and  in  maintain- 
ing the  common  defence. 

Thus  a  people  who  needed  no  defence,  and  who  jealously  held 
sacred  the  right  of  maintaining  their  own  courts  and  governments, 
were  to  be  bribed  into  acquiescence  to  despotism  by  the  promise 
of  getting  back  the  money  unlawfully  wrung  from  them.  No  more 
artful  trick  whereby  to  rob  free  people  of  their  liberty,  and  no 
more  unworthy  one  ever  disgraced  a  minister  or  legislature.  The 
scheme  was  simply  this — to  establish  a  despotism  by  an  appeal  to 
the  avarice  of  those  despoiled.  To  uphold  such  a  project,  it  was 
fitting  that  recourse  should  be  had  to  the  bad  and  ignoble  qualities 
of  human  nature  rather  than  to  the  good  and  noble.  Heretofore, 
the  internal  governments  of  the  colonies  had  been  their  own. 
They  themselves  paid  their  governors,  their  legislatures,  their 
judges,  and  it  was  they  who  provided  for  their  own  defence  ;  they 
were,  as  we  hgive  seen,  self-governed.     Now,  on  the  contrary,  it 


262  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

appeared  that  the  right  of  self-defence  was  to  be  taken  away,  that 
their  courts  were  to  be  constituted  of  those  who  had  deprived 
them  of  this  right,  and  that  their  governments  were  to  be  made 
independent  of  them  and  placed  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  their 
rulers  ;  and  for  all  this  they  were  to  pay  with  their  own  substance. 
There  was  no  pretence  of  commercial  regulation  ;  that  idea  was 
scouted.  The  Townshend  Acts  were  political  ;  there  was  no 
mincing  of  words  about  it,  and  the  avowed  object  was  the  central- 
ization of  power  into  the  hands  of  Parliament.  Absolutism  had 
thrown  down  the  gauntlet  :  it  would  now  attack  by  storm  what  it 
had  previously  been  content  to  gain  by  sap.* 

Before  the  acts  went  into  effect  Charles  Townshend  died,  and 
the  administration  staggered  on,  deprived  of  the  guidance  of  Lord 
Chatham,  who,  fcr  more  than  two  years,  was  held  in  the  strictest 
seclusion  by  reason  of  ill-health  :  a  great  calamity  for  England, 
for  now,  more  than  at  any  time  since  the  days  of  the  Stuarts,  she 
was  to  need  coolness  of  judgment,  tact,  prudence,  and  firmness 
in  action,  self-control,  and  the  exercise  of  that  rarest  of  arts  in 
governing,  the  art  of  waiting  in  calm  and  serene  patience."  But,  as 
the  event  proved,  she  was  as  ill  provided  in  moral  qualifications 
for  the  task  she  had  set  herself  to  perform  as  the  colonists  after- 
ward were  in  physical  means  for  the  struggle  which  closed  the 
conflict.  The  battle  was,  after  all,  not  to  the  strong  in  arms  but 
to  the  strong  in  spirit. 

At  once  the  war  between  parliamentary  absolutism  and  local 
self-government  broke  out  with  a  stubbornness  which  lasted  until 
one  side  had,  by  the  accomplishment  of  its  political  independence, 
acquired  the  victory  over  the  other.  Virginia  and  Massachusetts 
came  to  the  front.  Agreements  not  to  import  the  products  of 
Great  Britain  were  eagerly  signed  in  the  colonies,  and  were  lived 
up  to  with  a  consistency  and  spirit  which  is  wonderful  when  it  is 
considered  how  irksome  and  galling  this  deprivation  of  home  com- 
forts and  personal  necessities  must  have  been.  From  Pennsylvania 
"The  Farmer's  Letters"  of  John  Dickinson  circulated  throughout 
the  whole  country  with  a  rapidity  which  showed  how  all-engross- 
ing was  the  subject  then  uppermost  in  the  public  mind,  and  met 
with  a  welcome  whose  warmth  displayed  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
people,  and  their  determination  to  maintain  their  rights. 

*  Knox's  "  Extra-official  Papers,"  ii,  26. 


THE   CIRCULAR  LETTER,  263 

The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  sent  a  Circular  Letter  to  the 
Assemblies  of  the  other  colonies,  in  which  was  set  forth  the  neces- 
sity of  all  acting  together  harmoniously,  and  of  freely  communi- 
cating the  mind  of  each  to  the  others.  The  course  Massachusetts 
had  pursued  was  described,  with  the  contents  of  the  petition  and 
letters  which  had  been  written,  and  with  the  hope  expressed  that 
she  would  have  their  cordial  co-operation  in  resistance  to  the 
ministerial  measures.  The  notion  that  political  independence  was 
aimed  at  was  strenuously  denied,  and  the  trust  was  uttered  that 
what  had  been  done  would  meet  the  approval  of  their  "  common 
head  and  father,"  and  that  the  liberties  of  the  colonies  would 
be  confirmed.  This  Letter  elicited  response  from  some,  others 
returned  none  officially,  but  all  who  answered  replied  favorably. 
It  gave,  however,  the  greatest  offence  to  the  ministry,  and  partic- 
ularlv  to  Lord  Hillsborough,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colo- 
nies. It  seems  that  he  read  it  entirely  by  the  light  which  a  letter 
from  Governor  Bernard  to  Lord  Barrington  had  shed  upon  it. 
This  epistle  declared  the  real  motive  of  the  colonies  to  be  a 
determination  to  be  independent.  Hillsborough,  filled  with  this 
idea,  communicated  it  to  the  other  members  of  the  cabinet,  and 
thus  the  Circular  Letter  was  laid  prejudged  before  them.  It  was 
determined  that  it  merited  notice,  but  that  the  only  notice  to  be 
given  it  should  be  one  of  censure,  and,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
they  resolved  upon  two  things  :  to  require  the  Massachusetts  As- 
sembly to  rescind  the  Letter,  and  to  require  the  other  legislatures 
before  whom  it  had  been  laid  to  reject  it.  This  was  done,  and 
the  consequences  were,  that  the  General  Court,  or  Legislature,  of 
Massachusetts  voted,  by  ninety-two  to  seventeen,  that  they  would 
do  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  that  the  other  legislatures  gave  the 
outcast  a  hearty  welcome.  As  for  the  people,  they  showed  their 
approval  of  their  representatives  by  toasting,  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other,  "  The  unrescinding  Ninety-two,"  with  whom 
was  coupled  the  number  Forty-five,  or  that  of  the  famous  "  North 
Briton";  while  the  Bostonians  added  fuel  to  the  flame  by  a  riot  on 
the  score  of  the  sloop  Liberty,  in  which  they  attacked  the  houses 
of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Customs,  and  made  a  bonfire  of  the 
Collector's  boat.  Shortly  afterward,  (but  not  by  reason  of  the 
riot),  four  ships  of  war  anchored  in  Boston  harbor,  and  two  regi- 
ments of  soldiers  were  quartered  on  the  town. 


264  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

The  Circular  Letter,  the  action  of  the  legislatures,  and  the 
general  contumacy  of  the  people,  attracted  the  attention  of  all 
western  Europe,  and  when  Parliament  met  in  1769,  its  agitation 
at  once  showed  its  deep  feeling  of  resentment  against  the  colonies, 
and  particularly  against  Massachusetts  and  the  city  of  Boston. 
The  absence  of  Lord  Chatham  at  this  juncture  cannot  be  too 
deeply  deplored.  None  but  he  was  capable  of  awing  the  resent- 
ful into  prudence.  The  king  called  attention  in  his  speech  to 
what  had  been  done  in  Boston  as  subversive  of  the  Constitution, 
and  indicative  of  a  tendency  to  independence  of  Great  Britain. 
Sixty  papers  bearing  upon  colonial  affairs,  and  all  condemnatory 
of  the  late  doings,  were  laid  before  Parliament,  which,  in  both 
Houses,  expressed  its  opinion,  that  the  action  of  Massachusetts 
was  derogatory  of  the  dignity  and  rights  of  the  Crown  and  Par- 
liament. Lord  Mansfield  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  the  members 
of  the  General  Court  had  been  guilty  of  contumacy  in  refusing  to 
rescind  the  Circular  Letter,  in  sitting  in  a  self-called  convention, 
and  in  various  other  ways,  and  that  they  should  be  summoned  to 
England  to  account  for  their  conduct.  Whereupon,  Lord  Hills- 
borough moved,  that  censure  be  passed  on  that  body,  and  also 
upon  the  Boston  town-meeting,  which  was  done  ;  and  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  smarting  under  the  action  of  the  Grand  Jury,  which 
had  separated  without  bringing  in  true  bills  against  the  rioters, 
pushed  through  a  joint  Address  to  the  King,  begging  His  Majesty 
to  obtain  the  fullest  information,  so  that,  in  case  of  sufficient 
grounds,  the  statute  of  35  Henry  VHI.  might  be  enforced,  and 
the  offenders  brought  to  trial  in  England,  before  a  special  com- 
mission.    To  point  the  moral,  the  king  knighted  Bernard. 

This  revival  of  the  law  of  Henry  VHL,  which  had  become 
obsolete,  from  the  very  fact  that  it  was  a  part  of  that  despotism, 
which  for  generations  had  not  dared  to  show  its  head  in  England, 
was  neither  politic  nor  justifiable.  It  is  due  to  a  portion  of  the 
English  press  to  say,  that  this  step  of  Bedford  excited  alarm,  and 
that  it  met  with  vigorous  protestations,  in  which  it  was  averred, 
that  the  bloody  axe  of  Henry  VHL  had  been  scoured  up  and 
whetted  for  the  necks  of  poor  Americans.  One  might  suppose  that 
the  sight  of  this  engine  of  despotism  so  quickly  dragged  out  of  its 
hiding-place,  would  have  inspired  salutary  reflection.  Free  people 
have  no  use  for  such  things,  and  the  question  might  naturally  arise, 


THE     VIRGINIA   RESOLUTIONS.  26$ 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this,  and  here  among  a  free  people  ?  That 
such  thoughts  did  intrude  themselves,  there  is  no  doubt ;  but  there 
are  none  so  blind  to  despotism  as  those  who  desire  it  and  those 
who  enforce  it.  King,  Parliament,  and  people,  all  were  seeking  to 
make  their  power  felt  by  their  dependencies ;  so  far  forth  they 
wished  a  despotism,  and,  having  one,  were  bent  upon  imposing  it 
on  those  whom  they  deemed  powerless  to  help  themselves.  Eng- 
land's head  was  turned  by  the  glories  of  the  late  war,  and  the 
magnitude  of  her  armament.  Her  pride  no  longer  lay  in  dispen- 
sing the  bounty  and  extending  the  protection  of  a  mother,  but  in 
making  her  children  feel  the  weight  of  her  power.  It  is  a  sad 
state  of  affairs,  when  a  parent  had  rather  that  her  child  be  bound 
to  her  by  fear  than  by  affection  ;  yet,  such  was  now  the  spirit  that 
pervaded  the  mother-country. 

The  colonies  might  well  have  been  appalled.  With  an  armed 
force  quartered  on  their  soil,  with  the  people  of  England  united  in 
indignation  against  them,  with  the  King  never  mentioning  them 
except  in  terms  of  bitterness,  with  the  Commons'  table  loaded  with 
bills  aimed  at  their  liberties,  and  with  even  the  names  of  their  lead- 
ers bandied  about  the  floor  as  the  names  of  men  for  whom  the  gal- 
lows was  waiting,  it  was  now  their  turn  to  stand  aghast.  But  they 
did  nothing  of  the  kind.  Massachusetts  turned  her  head  in  mute 
appeal.  It  was  not  in  vain  :  Virginia  stepped  promptly  forward, 
and  opposed  her  breast  to  the  blast. 

For  many  years  Virginia  had  been  without  a  governor.  It  was 
deemed  a  happy  stroke  of  policy  at  this  time,  to  send  her  one 
whose  amiable  disposition  would  give  assurance  of  the  kindness 
still  felt  for  the  colonies  in  the  royal  closet  from  which  he  was 
dispatched.  There  can  be  no  question  of  Lord  Botetourt's  ap- 
pointment being  a  conciliatory  act  ;  nor  of  its  being,  as  far  as  it 
went,  a  politic  act.  Though  he  lacked  force,  his  gentleness, 
amiability,  and  dignity  made  up  the  deficiency,  and,  altogether, 
he  was  one  who  would  have  been  in  every  way  suited  to  a  people 
who  delighted  in  the  courtesy  of  V  ancien  regime^  had  the  times 
been  such  as  to  give  to  manners  the  precedence  of  principles. 
That  the  appointment  was  a  pleasing  one,  is  shown  by  the  fact, 
that  though  Botetourt  came  in  a  whirlwind  and  departed  in  one, 
the  Virginians  gave  him  what  Charles  Townshend  declared  he 
did  not  expect  for  himself,  a  statue.     But,  welcome  as  the  new 


266  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

governor  might  be,  the  gale  held  on  its  course.  The  planters 
heard  with  polite  deference  the  whisper  that  his  Excellency  would 
be  gratified  if  they  kept  silent  on  political  questions,  and  answered 
it  by  the  Resolves  of  May  16,  1769,  which  were  received  with  one 
acclaim  throughout  the  colonies. 

They  resolved :  that  the  sole  right  of  imposing  taxes  upon  them 
lay  in  themselves  ;  that  it  was  their  undoubted  privilege  to  peti- 
tion their  sovereign  for  redress  of  grievances,  and  to  procure  the 
concurrence  of  His  Majesty's  other  colonies,  in  dutiful  addresses, 
praying  the  royal  interposition  in  favor  of  the  violated  rights  of 
America ;  that  all  trials  for  any  crime  whatsoever  done  in  the 
colonies  ought  of  right  to  be  had  before  the  colonial  courts,  ac- 
cording to  the  fixed  and  known  course  of  proceeding,  and  that 
seizing  any  persons  suspected  and  sending  them  beyond  the  sea 
to  be  tried,  was  highly  derogatory  of  the  rights  of  British  subjects, 
as  thereby  the  inestimable  privilege  of  being  tried  by  a  jury  from 
the  vicinage,  as  well  as  the  liberty  of  summoning  and  producing 
witnesses,  would  be  taken  away  from  the  party  accused  ;  that  an 
address  be  prepared  assuring  His  Majesty  of  their  inviolable  at- 
tachment to  him  and  his  government,  and  to  beseech  his  royal 
interpositioH,  as  the  father  of  «11  his  people,  to  quiet  the  minds  of 
his  loyal  subjects  of  that  colony,  and  to  avert  from  them  those 
dangers  and  miseries  which  would  ensue  from  the  seizing  and 
carrying  beyond  sea  any  person  residing  in  America,  suspected  of 
any  crime  whatsoever,  to  be  tried  in  any  other  manner  than  by  the 
ancient  and  long-established  course  of  proceeding.  And  they 
ordered  their  Speaker  to  transmit,  without  delay,  to  the  Speakers 
of  the  other  legislatures,  a  copy  of  the  resolutions,  and  a  request 
for  their  concurrence.  Whereupon,  the  amazed  Botetourt  could 
only  gasp  out  his  abhorrence  of  the  whole  proceeding,  and  tell  the 
planters  to  go  home. 

The  Virginians  being  in  no  mood  for  returning  home  in  such  a 
fashion,  held  a  meeting  in  "  the  Apollo,"  and  united  into  an  as- 
sociation to  carry  out  the  non-importation  agreement ;  an  exam- 
ple speedily  followed  by  all  the  other  colonies,  but  one.  As  for 
the  legislatures  appealed  to,  they  concurred  heartily. 

Although  both  sides  were  now  confronting  each  other  as  an- 
tagonists, actual  hostility  was  something  which  came  much  later. 
The  policy  of  Great  Britain  was  indeed  inimical  to  the  liberty  and 


HALF  MEASURES:    THE    TEA  ACT  26j 

peace  of  America,  but  this  enmity  was  not  yet  shown  by  her  deeds, 
— though  these  were  unquestionably  becoming  threatening.  On 
the  contrary,  it  accorded  with  this  policy  to  assume  and  maintain 
as  long  as  possible  a  conciliatory  aspect :  it  was  the  colonies  who 
were  to  wear  the  appearance  of  being  in  the  wrong,  not  England. 
Nothing  was  easier  to  effect  than  this,  inasmuch  as,  so  long  as  the 
Declaratory  Act  stood  on  the  statute  book,  measures  might  be 
changed  at  will.  The  appointment  of  Lord  Botetourt,  as  has  been 
seen,  was  one  of  those  conciliatory  acts  which  left  the  principle  as 
unfettered  and  vigorous  as  ever ;  the  recall  of  Bernard  was  an- 
other, and  we  have  now  to  notice  still  another  of  the  series,  which 
continued  until  they  and  the  odious  principle  they  masked  were 
at  last  contemptuously  flung  to  the  ground  together. 

In  the  spring  of  1770,  Lord  North  took  advantage  of  a  petition 
from  the  London  merchants  to  modify  his  policy  by  moving  a 
partial  repeal  of  the  act  imposing  revenue.  This  motion  was  not 
made  until  after  full  deliberation  and  a  consultation  which  re- 
vealed a  great  division  of  opinion  in  the  cabinet.  The  question 
before  the  ministers  was,  Shall  or  shall  not  the  imposition  of  the 
new  import  duties  laid  upon  America  be  persevered  in  ?  Lord 
Chatham  was  still  absent,  but  the  Duke  of  Grafton  was  for  repeal 
and  total  repeal.  Lord  North,  too,  was  for  repeal,  but  for  repeal 
of  such  a  sort  as  would  not  reflect  in  the  slightest  degree  on  the 
principle  involved.  This,  he  thought,  could  be  effected  by  the 
retention  of  the  duty  on  tea,  which  was  not  a  British  product,  and 
which  would  preserve  the  principle  of  the  right  to  tax  while  the 
measure  would  be  shorn  of  its  obnoxious  features.  The  king 
thought  so  too;  "there  must  always  be  one  tax,"  said  he,  "to 
keep  up  the  right."  On  the  question  being  put  to  vote  it  was 
determined,  by  a  majority  of  one  only,  that  the  policy  should 
be  persevered  in,  but  that  the  measure  should  be  modified. 
The  king  and  his  advisers  took  great  credit  to  themselves  for 
this  concession  and  for  the  self-control  and  magnanimity  it  in- 
volved. 

Accordingly  the  Act  was  thus  partially  repealed,  though  the 
whole  Opposition,  except  Grenville,  who,  by  not  voting,  displayed 
irresolution,  were  for  absolute  repeal.  The  right  was  but  a 
shadow,  they  said,  the  profit  but  a  peppercorn  :  and  well  might 
they  say  so,  for,  during  the  past  financial  year,  the  duty  on  tea 


'258  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

from  all  America  had  produced  less  than  three  hundred  pounds 
sterling.* 

But  that  the  right  was  a  shadow  only,  was  by  no  means  so  con- 
sidered by  the  absolutists,  who  proceeded  to  prove,  in  the  most 
positive  way  absolutism  has  ever  been  able  to  adopt,  how  substan- 
tial it  was.  Henceforth  the  government  of  the  colonies  was,  as 
far  as  it  could  be  effected,  a  government  of  ukase,  of  imperial 
rescript,  or,  as  then  termed,  of  Royal  Order.  From  this  time 
there  issued  directly  to  the  governors  Royal  Instructions^  under 
the  king's  signature,  and  with  the  privy  seal  annexed.  The 
position  was  taken,  that  though  the  king,  like  his  subjects,  was 
under  the  law  in  England,  he  was  above  it  in  the  colonies.  Lord 
Granville  said  to  Franklin,  that  the  king's  instructions,  when 
received  by  the  governors,  were  laws  of  the  land,  "  for  the  King 
is  the  legislator  of  the  colonies  "  ^ ;  an  expression  to  be  considered 
as  conflicting  with  the  doctrine  of  parliamentary  supremacy,  were 
it  not  that  such  supremacy  really  meant  absolutism  which  acted 
through  Parliament,  but  which  had  its  true  source  in  the  throne. 
It  was  not  the  first  time  the  throne  had  made  the  imperial  legis- 
lature its  instrument,  but  it  was  the  first  time  it  had  succeeded  in 
using  the  people  of  England  themselves.  That  such  was  the  case 
is  disclosed  by  the  language  of  the  people  everywhere  no  less 
than  by  the  action  of  their  representatives  in  Parliament.  Mo- 
nopoly, as  has  been  seen,  upon  a  former  time,  moved  from  the 
corporations  and  nobles  to  the  commonalty,  and  now  absolutism 
had  stepped  from  the  throne  to  the  streets.  Every  Englishman 
demanded  that  the  Americans  look  upon  him  as  one  of  their 
sovereigns.  "Everyman  in  England,"  said  Franklin,  "*  *  * 
seems  to  jostle  himself  into  the  throne  with  the  King,  and  talks  of 

*Ald.  lieckford's  statement,  **Cav.  Deb.,"  i,  400.  During  this  year,  1770, 
George  Grenville  died.  He  was  not  a  great  man.  hut  he  was  eai-nest,  and,  at 
heart,  disposed  to  do  good  :  but  he  did  not  know  how  to  effect  his  ends,  and  he 
was  continually  under  the  delusion  that  government  lay  solely  in  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment and  Orders  in  Council.  He  was  a  functionary,  not  a  statesman.  One 
cannot  read  his  last  recorded  expression  on  American  taxation  without  feeling 
that  he  was  conscious  of  the  great  mistake  he  had  made.  *'  Nothing,"  said  he, 
"  could  induce  me  to  tax  America  again,  but  the  united  consent  of  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons,  supported  by  the  united  voice  of  the  people  of  England.  *  * 
*  I  will  never  lend  my  hands  toward  forging  chains  for  America,  lest  in  so 
doing  I  should  forge  them  for  myself." — "  Cav.  Deb.,"  i,  496.  Were  the  con- 
ditions omitted  from  this  acknowledgment,  the  Americans  would  regard  his 
atonement  as  complete. 

'  Sparks*  "  Works  of  Franklin,"  vii,  550. 


ROYAL  INSTRUCTIONS.  269 

our  subjects  in  America."  *  With  the  moral  support  of  Lords  and 
Commons  thus  offered  it,  the  King  found  no  ooposition  at  home 
thrown  in  the  way  of  his  Royal  Instructions. 

These  instructions  followed  each  other  thick  and  fast,  and  were 
as  various  as  the  circumstances  which  demanded  them.  No  two 
were  alike  for  two  places,  for  diversity  was  sought  as  a  feature 
favorable  to  the  prevention  of  a  general  issue  by  the  colonists. 
They  ignored  colonial  laws,  required  the  dissolution  of  the  legis- 
latures, removed  them  from  their  accustomed  places,  negatived 
their  choice  of  speakers,  directed  the  governors  to  withhold  their 
assent  from  tax  bills,  and  seemed  to  be  formed  on  the  assumption 
that  all  power  was  to  emanate  from  the  royal  closet,  that  a  per- 
sonal government  was  the  one  ordained  of  God  for  the  colonies, 
and  that  constitutional  liberty  did  not  exist  for  those  who  dwelt 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  British  Isles.  The  bureaucracy 
meddled  with  every  thing  ;  even  in  support  of  the  slave  trade, 
which  called  forth  the  indignant  protests  of  Virginia  and  Massa- 
chusetts against  that  inhuman  traffic.  Whenever  absolutism  once 
feels  the  ground  growing  firm  beneath  its  feet,  it  takes  upon  itself 
the  shape  of  a  personal  government,  with  all  those  features,  so 
odious  to  the  Saxon  mind,  of  direct  action,  absence  of  parlia- 
mentary deliberation,  secrecy,  and  closet  administration.  Nothing 
discloses  the  subordinate  and  instrumental  part  played  by  Parlia- 
ment so  we-11  as  these  Royal  Instructions.  As  soon  as  the  crown 
felt  itself  strong  enough,  it  ignored  the  notion  of  a  parliamentary 
government  as  much  as  the  Americans  did,  and  had  not  the  Eng- 
lish people  been  blinded  by  their  arrogance,  they  would  have  seen 
how  purely  artificial  the  term  parliamentary  absolutism  is.  Re- 
flection should  have  taught  them  from  their  own  history,  that 
there  is  really  but  one  continuing  absolutism,  the  one  which  ap- 
pears on  the  throne  the  moment  the  iron  is  magnetized  enough  to 
draw  the  particles  ;  that  the  absolutism  of  a  people  is  not  a  per- 
sistent active  force,  but  a  temporary  disorder  which  in  time  cor- 
rects itself,  and  that  the  only  part  they  or  the  Parliament  which 
represents  them  can  play,  is  that  of  being  the  tool  of  him  who  holds 
the  actual  power.  However,  though  free  themselves,  the  English 
were  now  enjoying  the  intoxication  of  playing  despot  to  others, 
and  there  was  no  hand  to  stay  them  ;  for,  from  Grenville's  last 
•/c/.,  vii,  468. 


270  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

words  in  Parliament,  there  seems  to  have  been  but  one  man  of 
all  those  who  wrought  the  mischief  sober  enough  to  suspect,  that, 
in  forging  chains  for  others,  he  might  be  forging  them  for  him- 
self. 

For  awhile  the  ukase  administration  seemed  to  be  acceptable 
even  to  the  victims.  Under  the  intolerable  pressure  of  personal 
deprivation,  the  non-importation  agreement  was  broken,  and  the 
colonists  fell  to  quarrelling  among  themselves  and  calling  each 
other  hard  names.  The  Boston  massacre,  which  had  created  in- 
tense excitement  in  both  countries,  appears  to  have  served  the 
purpose  in  America  of  relieving  the  public  mind  of  the  hatred 
then  poured  out  on  England  and  every  thing  English.  But  the 
troops  had  been  withdrawn,  and  a  disposition  to  let  things  alone,  bad 
as  they  were,  began  to  make  itself  felt.  Repeal,  such  as  it  was,  was 
having  its  effect,  and  the  ministry  party  in  the  colonies  began  to 
flatter  themselves,  that  **  the  reaction,"  that  dream  of  Bourbonism, 
which  always  takes  hope  when  revolution  stops  to  take  breath, 
had  surely  set  in. 

One  great  effect  of  the  Stamp  Act  had  been  to  call  into  exist- 
ence two  parties  in  America,  which,  like  those  of  England,  were 
called  Whig  and  Tory.  So  distinct,  however,  were  the  provinces, 
and  so  sluggish  the  disposition  to  unite,  that,  in  the  Whig  or 
patriot  parry,  there  was  little  concert  of  action.  There  could  not 
be  ;  for  what  existed  of  that  party  in  each  colony  was  bounded  by 
the  limits  of  that  colony,  and,  in  fact,  there  may  be  said  to  have 
been  as  many  such  parties  as  there  were  provinces.  Apathy  had 
fallen  upon  the  land,  but  the  apathetic  pauses  of  revolution  are 
invariably  brooding,  and  this  was  one  of  them.  The  American 
leaders  were  none  the  less  conscious  that  something  had  to  be 
done  to  deliver  the  people  from  the  body  of  that  death,  notwith- 
standing that  the  people  were  muttering  for  a  little  more  slumber, 
a  little  more  folding  of  the  hands  to  rest.  For  the  moment  it  seemed 
as  if  there  was  nothing  which  was  available  to  break  the  dangerous 
lethargy.  The  pertinacity  of  the  cabinet,  however,  soon  came  to 
their  relief.  Though  the  duties  on  glass,  paper,  and  paint,  had 
been  repealed,  the  preamble  of  the  Act  imposing  them  had  not 
been,  and  the  purpose  to  make  the  colonial  governments  and 
courts  English  instead  of  American  still  stood  out  boldly  from  the 
statute  book.     That  purpose  was  now  to  be  enforced  through  an 


COMMITTEES  OF  CORRESPONDENCE.  2^1 

order  of  Hillsborough,  that  the  judges  and  their  subordinates 
should  be  paid  from  the  imperial  treasury.  This  was  followed  by 
a  declaration  of  Lord  Dartmouth,  that  the  King  had  the  right  to 
make  such  provision.  **  The  blind  may  see,  the  callous  must  feel, 
the  spirited  will  act,"  cried  Josiah  Quincy  ;  and  Samuel  Adams, 
seeing  that  the  hour  had  struck,  now  bent  himself  to  the  task  of 
organizing  one  party  throughout  America.  At  a  town-meeting, 
called  to  consider  this  salary  question,  Adams  moved  that  a  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  be  appointed.  The  motion  was  carried. 
This  example  was  everywhere  followed  throughout  New  England, 
and  eventually  in  the  other  provinces,  and  henceforward  the 
"committees  of  correspondence"  figure  on  every  page  of  the 
revolution.  This  movement,  even  when  still  confined  to  New  Eng- 
land, was  formidable,  and  the  astute  and  far-reaching  Hutchinson, 
delaying  not  for  instructions  from  London,  boldly  threw  himself 
in  its  path  and  denounced  the  committees  of  correspondence  as 
hostile  to  the  Constitution.  The  encounter  which  ensued  was 
eagerly  observed  from  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  To  the  annoy- 
ance of  the  cabinet,  it  brought  out  that  dread  of  absolutism,  a  dis- 
cussion of  first  principles,  before  which  the  unsupported  Hutchin- 
son at  last  had  to  retire,  covered  with  the  ridicule  of  enemies  and 
the  reproaches  of  friends. 

Still  the  remaining  colonies  did  not  evince  a  disposition  to 
throw  off  their  indifference,  and  the  Bostonians  were  yielding  to 
disappointment,  when  a  Royal  Instruction  arrived  creating  a 
Commission  to  inquire  into  the  circumstances  which  resulted  in 
the  burning  of  His  Majesty's  schooner  Gaspee  in  the  Rhode 
Island  waters,  to  order  the  arrest  of  the  parties  charged,  together 
with  the  witnesses,  and  to  call  for  assistance,  if  any  were  needed, 
upon  the  commander  of  the  army  in  America,  who  was  instructed 
to  supply  it.  When  the  arrests  were  made,  the  parties  arrested 
were  to  be  sent  to  England  for  trial. 

This  actual  violation  of  the  right  to  trial  by  jury,  with  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  British  army  in  readiness  to  strike  the  right  down  should 
it  attempt  to  assert  itself,  aroused  every  instinct  of  the  freeman. 
Nevertheless,  the  tameness  of  overawed  Rhode  Island  was  such 
as  to  provoke  a  taunt  from  Greene,  the  future  antagonist  of  Corn- 
wallis  in  the  Carolinas.  Virginia,  however,  took  up  the  matter  at 
once,  and,  through  her  young  progressives,  sounded  the  alarm  to 


2/2  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

all  the  colonies  in  a  set  of  resolutions,  which,  for  the  first  time, 
referred  to  the  action  of  all  the  British  colonies  in  America,  with- 
out limitation.  These  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously- 
adopted,  provided  for  a  standing  committee  "  to  keep  up  and 
maintain  a  correspondence  and  communication  with  her  sister 
colonies/'  and  was  the  first  effective  legislative  action  of  the  kind. 
*'Full  scope,"  wrote  Richard  Henry  Lee,  "is  given  to  a  large  and 
thorough  union  of  the  colonies,  though  our  language  is  so  con- 
trived as  to  prevent  the  enemies  of  America  from  hurrying  this 
transaction  into  the  vortex  of  treason."  Five  colonies  at  once 
responded  with  resolutions  to  cooperate.  The  silence  of  irresolu- 
tion hung  over  the  remaining  seven.  Another  aggression  was 
needed  to  stir  timidity  into  boldness.  It  soon  came,  and  the  pro- 
longed quiet  was  abruptly  broken  by  an  affair  which  riveted  at- 
tention upon  the  colonies,  and  did  much  to  hasten  their  revolt. 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Conflict  with  Absolutism — Continued, 

THE  affairs  of  the  East  India  Company  had  fallen  into  bad 
shape.  Child's  panegyric  had  been  written  in  vain.  Their 
embarrassments  were  attributed  to  bad  management  and  to  the 
refusal  of  one  of  their  best  markets,  the  American,  to  take  their 
teas  on  any  terms  so  long  as  they  were  burthened  with  duties. 
The  colonists  drank  tea  none  the  less,  it  is  true,  but  they  smuggled 
it  from  the  rivals  of  the  East  India  Company,  the  Dutch  ;  a  fact 
which  only  served  to  aggravate  the  evil.  Two  things  occurred,  in 
consequence,  to  embarrass  the  company :  an  enormous  glut  which 
crammed  the  warehouses,  and  an  empty  money-chest.  In  its  dis- 
tress the  company  appealed  to  the  government,  who  undertook 
to  relieve  it  by  a  loan  of  ;j^  1,500,000  sterling.  In  order  to  reim- 
bursement, however,  it  was  necessary  to  take  another  step,  namely, 
to  effect  the  sale  of  the  teas.  In  1772,  on  a  renewal  of  the  Tea 
Act,  an  act  granting  a  drawback  of  three  fifths  of  the  English 
duties  of  customs  on  all  teas  sent  to  the  colonies  was  passed. 
Still  the  Americans  would  not  take  the  teas.  In  order  to  over- 
come this  perversity,  Lord  North  now,  April  27,  1773,  proposed  a 
drawback  on  teas  going  to  America  of  the  whole  duty  payable  in 
England,  and  that  the  company  should  be  at  liberty  to  export  its 
teas  directly  to  the  colonies,  which,  under  the  Navigation  Acts,  as 
we  have  seen,  could  not  then  be  done.  In  this  case,  the  teas,  when 
landed  on  American  wharves,  would  be  subject  only  to  the  duty 
of  three  pence  imposed  by  the  Act  of  1767.  As  this  would  en- 
able the  Americans  to  get  their  teas  cheaper  than  from  the  Dutch, 
no  doubt  was  entertained  of  the  colonial  market  opening  itself  to 
the  company,  which,  in  turn,  would  be  relieved  of  its  surplus,  and 

273 


274  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

reimbursement  would  be  assured,  while  the  three  pence,  which 
would  not  be  felt  in  the  payir^gj  would  be  enough  to  keep  the  flag 
of  principle  flying,  and  satisfy  the  royal  mind  respecting  the  one 
tax  necessary  to  maintain  the  right. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  in  this,  as  in  every  measure  brought  to 
bear  upon  them,  the  Americans  were  to  admit  the  right  of  Great 
Britain  to  tax  them  without  representation,  as  a  first  step,  and,  as 
a  second,  they  were  to  pay  in  cash  for  making  the  admission.  So 
long  as  the  colonies  were  maintained  by  England  for  commercial 
reasons,  it  was  natural  and  proper  that  her  legislation  should  bear 
the  ear-marks  of  trade.  But  when,  in  addition  to  commercial  regu- 
lation, she  adopted  a  policy  purely  political,  it  is  but  reasonable 
to  expect  that  her  action  in  that  respect  should  be  free  from  even 
the  suspicion  of  thrift.  This,  it  seems,  was  to  expect  too  much. 
"  They  have  no  idea,"  wrote  Franklin,  "  that  any  people  can  act 
from  any  other  principle  than  that  of  interest,"  and,  accordingly, 
all  of  England's  dealings  with  her  colonies  are  marred  by  those 
offensive  peculiarities  which  smack  of  the  shop.  This  was  galling 
in  the  extreme  to  a  people  who,  outside  of  their  few  seaports,  had 
no  trading  classes,  and  it  served  to  aggravate  the  irritation  every 
measure  of  this  commercial  power  excited.* 

*  During  the  year  1773  tliere  occurred  two  expressions  of  feeling  which  dis- 
played the  sense  of  injury  felt  by  one  side,  and  the  contempt  entertained  by  the 
other.  The  first  was  the  publication  of  two  satires  by  Dr.  Franklin,  then  re- 
siding in  England  as  a  colonial  agent,  entitled  respectively,  *'  Edict  of  the  King 
of  Prussia,"  in  which  Prussia  exacts  revenue  from  the  people  of  England  on  the 
ground  of  their  Teutonic  origin,  and  "Rules  for  reducing  a  Great  Empire  to  a 
Small  One,"  the  tenor  of  which  may  be  judged  from  the  following  paragraph: 
•*  In  the  first  place,  gentlemen,  you  are  to  consider  that  a  great  empire,  like  a 
great  cake,  is  most  easily  diminished  at  the  edges.  Turn  your  attention,  there- 
fore, first  to  your  remotest  provinces,  that,  as  you  get  rid  of  them,  the  rest  may 
follow  in  order." — "  Works,"  iv,  387. 

The  second  was  one  in  which  the  same  person  figured,  but  in  a  different  ca- 
pacity from  that  of  author.  A  Mr.  Thomas  VVhately,  formerly  private  secretary 
of  Mr.  Grcnville.  and  later  Under  Secretary  of  State,  died,  leaving  among  his 
effects  a  package  of  personal  correspondence  with  Gov.  Hutchinson  and  Lt. 
Gov.  Oliver,  of  Massachusetts.  These  letters,  in  some  mysterious  way,  came 
into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Franklin,  under  an  injunction  of  secrecy  and  a  pledge 
that  he  would  never  reveal  the  name  of  him  who  disclosed  them.  This  pledge 
Dr  Franklin  kept,  but  he  forwarded  the  letters,  or  a  copy  of  them,  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Assembly,  still  under  the  imposition  of 
secrecy.  Another  copy,  however,  coming  under  no  condition  of  secrecy,  as  it 
was  alleged,  was  published.  The  effect  was,  to  cause  such  indignation  that  a 
petition  was  ordered  by  the  Assembly  to  be  transmitted  to  Dr.  Franklin  for 
presentation  to  the  king,  asking  the  removal  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  The 
'matter  was  referred  to  the  Council,  before  whom  the  petitioners  appeared  by 
their  counsel,  Lee  and  Dunning,  and  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  by  their  counsel, 


THE    TEA    OVERBOARD,  ^75 

.  Had  the  Boston  Caucus  and  the  young  progressives  of  "the 
Raleigh  "  deliberated  a  lifetime,  they  could  not  have  gained  their 
object  so  speedily  and  effectually  as  the  sight  of  a  ship  loaded 
with  East  India  tea  did  for  them.  What  legislative  resolutions, 
circular  letters,  and  all  the  devices  of  politicians  had  failed  to  do, 
this  visible,  sensible,  palpable  fact  effected  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye.  The  old  Stamp- Act  feeling  burst  forth  stronger  than  ever. 
At  Boston,  the  people  pitched  the  tea  overboard  ;  a  deed  which 
was  greeted  throughout  the  colonies  by  the  ringing  of  bells,  and 
the  stoppage  of  the  tea  ships  before  they  touched  the  wharves. 
The  committees  of  correspondence  sat  from  day  to  day,  "  like  a 
little  senate,"  as  Hutchinson  said.  The  popular  party  everywhere 
acquired  great  strength,  and  when  the  legislatures  next  came  to- 
gether, six  more  colonies  were  in  solemn  though  active  cooperation 
with  Virginia.  The  colonies  were  practically  united,  and  men 
again  began  talking  of  a  congress. 

The  news  of  the  reception  the  tea  had  met  with  in  America  had 
a  natural  but  none  the  less  unhappy  effect  on  the  government  and 
the  people  of  England.  Heretofore,  they  reasoned,  those  contu- 
macious people  have  confined  their  opposition  to  paper  demonstra- 
tions— for  the  Boston  massacre  was  in  the  nature  of  a  riot  rather 
than  a  rebellion — demonstrations,  which,  though  aggravating,  have 
nevertheless  not  been  hostile,  and  their  resistance  has  been  of  that 

Wedderburne.  The  affair  caused  great  talk  in  London,  and  the  room  was 
crowded  with  the  leaders  of  the  Whigs  and  Tories.  From  the  very  beginning 
it  was  apparent  that  the  Council  regarded  the  doubtful  mode  by  which  the  let- 
ters were  obtained  as  something  of  much  greater  importance  than  the  question 
at  issue,  viz.  :  whether  or  no  the  misrepresentations  and  animosity  revealed  in 
the  correspondence  justified  the  retention  of  the  accused  in  positions  requiring 
so  much  judgment  and  impartiality  as  those  they  then  filled.  Wedderburne, 
sustained  by  the  unconcealed  sympathy  of  the  Council,  was  in  his  element.  He 
scowled  and  roared.  He  did  not  stop  with  making  fun  of  the  doctor  and  jok- 
ing about  philosophers  acting  as  go-betweens.  He  pilloried  him  for  the  con- 
tempt of  the  world  as  one  who  in  ancient  Rome  would  be  called  the  man  of 
three  letters,  and  he  held  the  Yankees  up  to  the  ridicule 'of  judges  who  re- 
ceived his  buffoonery  with  roars  of  laughter,  and  who  answered  his  malignity 
with  sarcastic  witticisms.  Finally  the  scene  was  brought  to  a  close,  and  a  de- 
cision was  entered  in  favor  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  with  the  extra  judicial 
opinion  appended,  that  the  petition  was  based  on  "  false  and  enormous  allega- 
tions, and  was  groundless,  vexatious,  and  scandalous."  Two  days  afterward, 
Franklin,  who  was  likewise  a  postmaster-general  in  the  colonies,  was  informed 
that  the  king  had  no  further  need  of  his  services.  For  once  the  philosophical 
character  of  this  remarkable  man  did  not  attain  to  perfect  self-control  ;  trom 
that  day  he  was  the  bitter,  unrelenting  enemy  of  king  and  Tory. 


276  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

passive  sort  which  all  people  are  at  liberty  to  make  use  of  by  way 
of  disapproval.  Now,  however,  resistance  is  become  active. 
Property  has  been  destroyed,  and  those  who  destroy  property  are 
on  the  high  road  to  the  destruction  of  life.  Active  resistance 
smacks  of  rebellion.  The  thing  is  becoming  ominously  grave, 
especially  when  it  is  considered,  that  it  is  the  most  portentous  of  a 
series  of  acts,  all  of  which  have  steadily  gone  from  bad  to  worse. 
On  the  assembling  of  Parliament  for  business  in  1774,  the  king 
laid  before  it  the  information  he  had  received,  and  urged  that  the 
most  serious  consideration  be  given  it.  That  England  was  stung 
to  the  quick,  was  shown  in  the  vehemence  with  which  her  wrath 
broke  forth  on  the  floor  of  Parliament.  Blind  with  that  wrath, 
she  committed  the  mistake  she  had  made  before  of  directing  it 
entirely  against  the  city  of  Boston,  and  of  ignoring  the  fact  that 
the  opposition  to  parliamentary  rule  was  general  throughout 
America.  Venn  shrieked,  Delenda  est  Carthago  I  and,  before  the 
hurricane  which  bent  its  force  on  Massachusetts,  the  Whigs  were 
'silent,  or  opened  their  lips  only  to  timorously  mutter  that  the 
Americans  had  "  gone  too  far"  and  done  "  too  much." 

On  the  14th  March,  Lord  North  brought  in  the  Boston  Port 
Billy  which  within  a  fortnight  was  passed  with  very  little  debate, 
and  received  the  king's  signature  March  31,  1774.  After  setting 
forth  that  the  condition  of  the  town  of  Boston  was  such  that  the 
commerce  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  could  not  be  safely  carried  on, 
or  the  customs  be  duly  collected,  it  provided,  that,  from  the  first 
of  June  following,  it  should  not  be  lawful  for  any  person  to  lade 
or  unlade,  to  ship  or  unship  any  goods  from  any  quay  or  wharf 
within  that  harbor,  and  constituted  Marblehead  a  port  of  entry, 
and  Salem  the  seat  of  government  :  but  a  power  was  reserved  to 
the  king  in  Council,  after  compensation  had  been  made  to  the 
East  India  Company,  and  peace  and  order  had  been  established, 
to  restore  the  town  its  trade.  It  was  further  announced,  that  the 
fleet  and  army  would  be  employed  to  enforce  the  act  :  "  What- 
ever may  be  the  consequences,"  said  the  Prime  Minister,  "we 
must  do  something  ;  if  we  do  not,  all  is  over."  * 

Dowdeswell,  Burke,  and  Fox  offered  resistance  to  the  bill  on 
the  ground  that  Boston  wai  not  bound  to  render  compensation 
for  the  property  destroyed,  and  that  the  display  of  force  preceded 

'•*  Pari.  Hist.,"  xvii,  1164,  1479. 


BOSTON  PORT  BILL:    REGULATING  ACT.  2// 

instead  of  following  the  demand  for  compensation.  Chatham  did 
not  speak,  and  the  bill  passed  whereby  sentence  of  death  wa$ 
passed  upon  the  city.  Before  its  passage,  however,  another  billi 
styled  the  Massachusetts  Government  Bill  or  Regulating  Act,  was 
introduced,  whereby  the  charter  of  that  province  was  to  be  altered 
by  making  the  Council  appointive  instead  of  elective,  and  by  ren>? 
daring  the  magistracy  wholly  dependent  on  the  governor,  who  iii 
certain  cases  could  remove  incumbents  without  the  assent  of  the 
Council.  Thus,  at  a  time  of  intense  excitement,  when  the  irritat- 
ed colonists  were  protesting  violently  against  the  right  of  strangers 
to  their  soil  exercising  the  power  of  taxing  them,  the  govern- 
ment impetuously  undertook  to  deprive  them  of  even  the  appear- 
ance of  self-government.  This  might  be  gratifying  to  passion, 
but  it  was  certainly  very  impolitic.  Still  another  bill  enacted, 
that  for  the  next  three  years  the  governor  might,  in  his  dis- 
cretion, send  any  persons  accused  of  complicity  in  the  late  dis- 
turbances to  any  other  colony  for  trial,  or  even  to  England  ;  and 
still  another  was  passed,  giving  all  lands  not  embraced  in  any 
other  charter  to  the  Province  of  Quebec  ;  a  measure  which  ex- 
cited the  angry  zeal  of  every  Protestant  in  Protestant  New  Eng- 
land. 

During  this  legislation  the  news  came  that  the  Bostonians  had 
emptied  another  cargo  into  the  harbor.  Evidently  these  people 
had  doomed  themselves  to  destruction.  Their  case  was  hopeless, 
and  there  was  now  nothing  to  do  but  to  let  the  wrath  of  a  justly 
exasperated  parent  take  its  course. 

Throughout  the  course  of  this  arbitrary  policy,  it  never  seems 
to  have  entered  the  English  mind  that  this  sad  state  of  affairs  was 
due  solely  to  the  existence  of  the  paterftal  government  they  had 
set  up  for  the  colonies  in  defiance  of  their  own  rejection  of  it  in 
1688.  If  a  paternal  government  was  hateful  and  altogether 
abominable  to  Britons  in  England,  why  should  it  not  be  to  Britons 
in  America  ?  That  the  tribe  in  America  was  doing  in  1774  only 
what  the  tribe  in  England  had  done  in  1688,  seems  never  to  have 
crossed  their  minds,  and  they  blindly  rushed  on  in  the  path  which 
had  led  the  Stuarts  to  the  fate  presented  them  by  the  fathers  of 
these  very  Englishmen. 

It  is  evident,  that  when  the  mass  of  the  English  people  could 
be  got  not  only  to  look  with  indifference  upon  the  imposition  of 


?78  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

arbitrary  power  upon  Britons,  but  even  to  support  and  encourage 
it,  with  no  compensation  for  the  danger  of  the  experiment  except 
the  gratification  of  a  sense  of  power,  it  is  evident  that  public  sen- 
timent in  England  was  on  a  lower  level  than  it  had  been  in  1688, 
that  it  had  declined,  and  that  to  regain  the  point  whence  it  had 
descended  would  be  for  Great  Britain  a  positive  advance  from  her 
present  position.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  equally  as  plain,  that  the 
Americans,  in  combating  absolutism  and  seeking  to  establish  their 
liberties  on  the  basis  of  1688,  were  the  ones  who  were  really  ad- 
vancing. But  what  especially  denotes  the  inoculation  of  abso- 
lutism is,  that  what  is  now  so  clear,  was  at  that  time  totally  ob- 
scured to  the  English  eye^  and  that  Great  Britain  was  deeming 
her  honor  to  lie  more  in  a  display  of  force  than  in  the  maintenance 
of  those  humane  principles  which,  until  then,  she  had  upheld  so 
bravely.  Had  the  English  people  been  true  to  their  own  history 
and  made  the  cause  of  the  Americans  their  own  ;  had  they  met 
absolutism  with  the  assertion  that  constitutional  liberty  was  not 
for  a  day  nor  for  a  locality,  but  for  all  time  and  for  wherever  an 
Englishman  could  set  his  foot  on  British  soil,  the  two  peoples 
would  have  met  at  one  point,  they  would  have  acted  together,  and 
the  cause  of  constitutional  liberty  would  have  expanded  with  a 
growing  empire,  which  there  would  have  been  every  reason  to 
keep  bound  together,  and  no  excuse  for  disrupting.  The  Quebec 
act,  by  giving  the  Canadians  what  they  wanted,  bound  Canada  to 
England  by  a  tie  yet  unbroken.  Had  the  English  people  done 
as  much  for  their  free  kindred  as  they  did  for  the  conquered 
French,  and  recognized  in  them  the  same  inheritance  of  liberty 
they  themselves  enjoyed — which  was  all  that  was  asked, — what 
resulted  in  Canada  would  have  unquestionably  resulted  in  the 
rest  of  the  British  possessions,  in  spite  of  that  bursting  sense  of 
maturity  which  cannot  be  omitted  as  one  of  the  incentives  of 
American  independence.  The  recognition  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion,  a  religion  to  which  England  was  bitterly  hostile,  could 
not  have  been  an  agreeable  task  to  English  representatives,  yet  we 
see  them  of  their  own  accord  hastening  to  do  what  was  almost  as 
needless  as  it  was  painful,  rather  than  to  do  what  was  just.  There 
can  be  no  more  convincing  evidence  that,  at  this  last  great  crisis 
of  Anglican  liberty,  England  had  fallen  behind  her  principles, 
and  that  absolutism  had  poisoned  her  blood. 


THE  PEOPLE   OF  ENGLAND  ABET   ABSOLUTISM.    279 

But  it  must  be  plainly  spoken  ;  throughout  this  dreary  conflict 
Americans  had  no  help  from  the  English  masses,  nor  even  their 
sympathy.  The  lesson  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  seems  to  have 
been  absolutely  forgotten  by  the  descendants  of  those  who  ac- 
complished it,  and  resting  content  with  the  posession  of  liberty  in 
themselves,  they  wasted  not  a  thought  on  that  of  their  dependen- 
cies, but  either  stood  by  with  folded  arms,  or  afforded  substantial 
aid  to  absolutism  by  lending  it  the  assistance  of  Parliament.  It 
was  enough  for  them  to  know  that  it  was  not  their  ov  that  was  be- 
ing gored.  When  the  conflict  actually  broke  out  between  local 
self-government  and  absolutism,  the  English  people  were  on  the 
side  of  absolutism,  and  "  the  violent  measures  were  fairly  adopted 
by  a  majority  of  individuals  of  all  ranks,  professions,  or  occupa- 
tions in  this  country"  of  England.^  Thus  the  Revolution  of  i688 
had  no  effect  in  arousing  the  sympathy  of  the  people  of  England 
for  those  engaged  in  a  struggle  with  arbitrary  power  like  that 
which  they  had  themselves  brought  to  so  glorious  a  conclusion. 
What  effect  it  had,  even  when  exerted  by  such  men  as  Chatham 
and  Burke,  was  powerless  to  arouse  a  nation  of  traders  to  any  view 
of  the  situation  which  was  broader  than  the  pages  of  their  ledg- 
ers ;  and,  in  this  respect,  as  far  as  any  benefit  to  the  colonies  is 
concerned,  the  Revolution  of  1688  might  as  well  have  never  oc- 
curred. In  fact,  the  Revolution  of  1776  would  have  taken  place 
had  that  of  1688  never  figured  in  the  British  annals  ;  it  was  the 
fight  of  Americans  with  absolutism  abetted  by  the  English  people, 
and  was  won  by  the  Americans  in  spite  of  the  English.  When  pru- 
dence was  a  virtue,  a  charge  to  this  effect  was  stricken  from  the 
rough  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  If,  however,  the 
truth  is  ever  to  be  uttered,  it  may  now  be  told. 

The  Boston  Port  Bill  was  received  in  America  with  honors  not 
accorded  even  to  the  Stamp  Act.  It  was  cried  through  the 
streets  as  "  A  barbarous,  cruel,  bloody,  and  inhuman  murder," 
and  was  burnt  by  the  common  hangman  on  a  scaffold  forty-five 
feet  high.  The  people  of  Boston  gathered  together  in  town-meet- 
ing at  Faneuil  Hall,  and  expresses  were  sent  off  with  an  appeal  to 
all  Americans  throughout  America.  The  responses  from  the 
neighborhood  came  like  snow-flakes,     Marblehead  offered  the  use 

'  Rockingham  to  Burke,  "  Burke's  Corresp.,"  ii,  68. 


28o  CONSTITUTIONAL   LIBERTY. 

of  its  wharves  to  the  Boston  merchants  ;  Salem  averred  that  it 
would  be  lost'to  ail  feelings  of  humanity  were  it  to  raise  its  fortunes 
on  tlie  ruins  of  its  neighbor.  Newburyport  voted  to  break  off 
trade  with  Great  Britain,  and  to  lay  up  its  ships.  Connecticut,  as 
her  wont  is,  when  moved  to  any  vital  occurrence,  betook  herself 
to  prayer  and  humiliation,  first,  however,  ordering  an  inventory  to 
be  taken  of  her  cannon  and  military  stores.  Virginia,  likewise,  re- 
solved to  invoke  the  divine  interposition,  but,  before  another  reso- 
lution which  called  for  a  Congress  could  be  introduced,  her  House 
was  precipitately  dissolved  ;  whereupon  the  resolution  was  brought 
up  and  passed  at  a  meeting  called  in  '*the  Apollo,"  where  it  was 
further  declared  that  an  attack  on  one  colony  was  an  attack  upon 
all.  Two  days  later  the  Massachusetts  letter  itself  was  received, 
upon  which  the  Virginians  called  a  convention.  From  all  parts 
contributions  in  money  poured  into  Boston,  and  resolutions  were 
everywhere  passed,  declaring  that  no  obedience  was  due  the  late 
acts  of  Parliament  ;  that  the  right  of  imperial  taxation  did  not  ex- 
ist ;  that  those  who  had  accepted  office  under  pay  of  the  king  had 
violated  their  public  duty  ;  that  the  Quebec  act  establishing  Ro- 
man Catholicism  in  Canada  was  hostile  to  the  Protestant  religion, 
and  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  colonies  should  use  their  ut- 
most diligence  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  art  of  war,  and  for 
that  purpose  should  turn  out  under  arms  at  least  once  a  week. 
In  the  fulness  of  time,  a  cordon  of  ships  was  drawn  around 
the  town,  and  six  regiments  and  a  train  of  artillery  were  en- 
camped on  Boston  Common — the  only  spot  in  the  thirteen  colo- 
nies where  the  government  could  enforce  an  order. 

The  conflict  between  constitutional  liberty  and  absolutism  had 
now  reached  that  dangerous  point  where  physical  force  became 
one  of  its  elements.  The  colonists  had  used  force  in  the  de- 
struction of  property,  and  the  mother-country  had  retaliated  by 
a  display,  in  their  very  midst,  of  force  which  threatened  the 
destruction  of  life.  Absolutism  was  quick  with  the  last  argument 
of  kings.  The  situation  was  at  once  recognized  throughout  the 
colonies,  and  the  knowledge  that  in  union  there  is  strength,  man- 
ifested itself  in  one  general  impulse  toward  a  Colonial  Congress. 
Committees  of  Correspondence  were  organized  in  every  county, 
and  throngs  attended  the  public  meetings.     "  One  great,  wise,  and 


CO.VGRESS   AND    UNION.  28l 

tioble  spirit  ;  one  masterly  soul  animating  one  vigorous  body," 
was  the  way  John  Adams  described  this  impulse.  The  Canadas 
alone  remained  inanimate.  Having  obtained  what  they  wanted, 
there  was  no  reason  for  their  moving  in  the  matter,  and  belong- 
ing for  the  most  part  to  a  race  of  absolutists,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at,  that  they  withheld  sympathy  from  those  who  were 
combating  what  was  natural  to  them,  and  that  they  flatly  re- 
fused to  budge. 

But  not  so  those  to  whom  constitutional  liberty  was  as  the 
breath  of  life.  On  the  17th  of  June  (1774)  the  Massachusetts 
Assembly,  which  had  been  removed  by  a  royal  order  to  Salem, 
answered  Virginia  by  resolving  on  a  call  for  a  Continental  Con- 
gress at  Philadelphia.  The  governor,  hearing  of  what  was  going 
on,  sent  the  secretary  of  the  colony  to  dissolve  the  Assembly,  but, 
finding  the  doors  shut  upon  him,  he  had  to  content  himself  with 
reading  the  message  to  the  crowd  outside.  The  House  went  on 
with  its  work,  while,  at  the  same  time,  a  great  meeting,  with  John 
Adams  in  the  chair,  was  being  held  at  Boston  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
Twelve  colonies  agreed  to  send  delegates  to  a  Continental  Con- 
gress to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  in  September.  In  this  movement 
the  action  of  Virginia  had  great  weight ;  not  that  it  was  more 
conspicuous  than  the  rest,  nor  for  those  tame  sentiments  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  afterward  said  he  believed  were  wisely  preferred, 
but  for  the  deep,  underlying  tone  of  resistance  heard  on  every 
hand,  and  which  made  itself  felt  to  the  farthest  bounds  of  the 
land.  The  instructions  which  had  been  prepared,  but  wliicii 
prudence  suppressed,  were  eagerly  taken  home  to  the  bosoms  of 
men,  and  were  reproduced  in  England  under  a  title  conferred 
upon  them  by  Edmund  Burke.  This  "Summary  View  of  the 
Rights  of  British  America"  spoke  the  heartfelt  sentiments  of  the 
Virginians,  and  ran  like  wildfire  through  the  colonies.  Their  in- 
fluence was  all  the  more  felt  for  not  being  official. 

The  Tea  Act,  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  the  Massachusselts 
Government  or  Regulating  Act  had  accomplished  an  end  not 
dreamed  of  by  iheir  creators.  They  erased  from  the  colonial 
mind  the  last  vestige  of  the  right  of  the  British  Parliament  to  tax 
America,  and  they  called  into  being  a  creature  hitherto  unknown, 
a  Parliament  of  the  colonies  themselves.  This  stranger  to  the 
structure  of  British  polity  was,  from  the  circumstances  which  gave 


282  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

it  life,  antagonistic  to  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain.  It  had 
been  created  to  protect  American  society  from  the  attacks  of 
absolutism  ;  its  further  object  was  to  foster  America  and  every- 
thing American,  and  to  neutralize  and  resist  all  encroachments 
upon  the  welfare  of  its  own  creators.  In  this  work  its  first  atti- 
tude was  necessarily  that  of  antagonism  to  a  Parliament  bent  on 
asserting  its  power  to  rule  the  colonies.  Thus  they  were  by 
nature  and  circumstance  antagonistic  to  each  other,  and,  for  the 
moment,  hostile.  The  two  could  not  occupy  the  same  place  at 
the  same  time  ;  one  or  the  other  had  to  give  way.  They  repre- 
sented their  peoples,  and  in  representing  them,  represented,  too, 
the  conflict  which  was  known  of  all  men. 

The  tribe  was  divided  :  there  were  now  two  Parliaments,  one  in 
England  and  the  other  in  America.  In  the  autumn  of  1774  the 
Americans  bent  their  steps  toward  Philadelphia,  and,  amid  breath- 
less expectation,  on  the  5th  of  September,  lifty-five  representatives 
sat  down  in  Carpenters*  Hall.  Virginia,  in  the  person  of  Peyton 
Randolph,  was  in  the  chair.  It  need  hardly  be  said,  that  the 
Congress  was  composed  almost  to  a  man  of  members  of  the  Whig 
party,  within  whose  limits,  however,  two  divisions  at  once  mani- 
fested their  presence,  the  Moderates  and  the  Extremists.  The 
former,  who  had  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania  for  their  leader, 
though  exacting  in  the  redress  of  grievances,  were  not  yet  for 
severing  the  connection  with  Great  Britain.  The  latter,  who  were 
led  by  a  majority  of  the  Virginians  and  all  the  Massachusetts  men, 
looked  the  event  of  separation  in  the  face,  and  were  prepared  to 
meet  it ;  though,  aware  that  public  sentiment  had  not  yet  caught 
up  with  them,  they  made  no  motion  toward  that  end.  The  Mod- 
erates, consequently,  controlled  the  action  of  this  First  Congress, 
and  all  being  restricted  to  the  common  ground  of  redress  of 
grievances,  every  thing  was  conducted  with  the  appearance  of 
harmony  and  unanimity. 

On  the  17th  of  September  the  County  of  Suffolk,  in  Massachu- 
setts, resolved,  that  the  people  owed  an  indispensable  duty  to 
God  and  their  country  to  preserve  those  liberties  for  which  their 
fathers  fought  and  bled,  expressed  the  determination  of  the  in- 
habitants to  oppose  the  acts  altering  their  charter,  and  promised 
cheerful  submission  to  whatever  the  Continental  Congress  should 
recommend.     To  this  Congress  replied,  unanimously  expressing 


THE  FIRST  CONGRESS:  A  BILL   OF  RIGHTS.         283 

feeling  for  the  sufferings  of  their  countrymen  in  Massachusetts, 
approved  the  course  which  had  been  taken  to  oppose  the  measures 
of  the  ministry,  and  recommended  perseverance  in  the  same  firm 
and  temperate  conduct.  These  resolutions,  together  with  those  of 
Suffolk  County,  were  ordered  to  be  printed. 

In  the  meantime,  General  Gage,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
troops  in  Boston,  began  to  fortify  his  position,  a  procedure  which 
gave  great  offence  to  the  people  :  whereupon  Congress  resolved, 
"  That  this  Congress  approve  of  the  opposition  made  by  the  in- 
habitants of  Massachb  .;etts  Bay  to  the  execution  of  the  late  acts 
of  Parliament  ;  and  ii  ihe  same  shall  be  attempted  to  be  carried 
into  execution  by  force,  in  such  case  all  America  ought  to  support 
them  in  their  opposition."  Slight  though  it  was  in  comparison 
with  what  was  afterward  displayed,  this  was  the  most  conspicuous 
indication  of  a  rebellious  spirit  that  appears  on  the  record,  and, 
after  a  quiet  session  of  less  than  two  months,  on  the  26th  of  Octo- 
ber, Congress  adjourned  to  meet  on  the  loth  of  May  following.  It 
gave  to  the  world,  however,  a  Bill  of  Rights  ;  entered  into  a  non- 
importation, non-consumption,  and  non-exportation  association  ; 
issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  and  a  memorial 
to  the  people  of  British  America  ;  sent  a  letter  to  the  people  of 
Quebec  and  the  rest  of  Canada  ;  prepared  a  loyal  petition  to  the 
king  and  gratefully  thanked  the  noble  advocates  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty  in  and  out  of  Parliament. 

The  Whigs  were  enthusiastic  in  their  praise  of  what  the  Con- 
gress had  done  :  their  adversaries,  the  Tories,  were  bitter  in  their 
condemnation.  As  the  former  greatly  outnumbered  the  latter, 
and  were  increasing  as  thece  decreased,  the  measures  of  Congress 
were  warmly  welcomed  by  the  people.  Certainly,  an  atmosphere 
of  dignity,  of  purity,  of  self-control,  and  of  mutual  concession 
rested  over  the  session,  and  invested  every  thing  they  did  with  a 
gravity  no  American  has  yet  been  irreverent  enough  to  make  light 
of.  "  When  your  lordships,"  said  Chatham,  **  look  at  the  papers, 
when  you  consider  their  decency,  firmness,  and  wisdom,  you  can- 
not but  respect  their  cause  and  wish  to  make  it  your  own.  For 
myself,  I  must  declare  and  avow,  that,  in  all  my  reading  and 
observation — and  it  has  been  my  favorite  study  :  I  have  read 
Thucydides,  and  have  studied  and  admired  the  master  states  of 
the  world, — that,  for  solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and 


284  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY.  ' 

wisdom  of  conclusion,  under  such  a  complication  of  circumstances, 
no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand  in  preference  to  the  general 
Congress  at  Philadelphia."  This  judgment  has  been  confirmed 
by  the  settled  opinion  of  another  century  and  of  a  wider  world. 
That  faith  in  this  Congress,  as  well  as  admiration  for  it,  was  not 
wanting  to  the  Americans  at  that  time,  is  shown  by  the  eagerness 
with  which  its  recommendations  were  everywhere  acted  upon,  and 
by  the  universal  testimony  that  it  had  uttered  the  sincere  convic- 
tions which  now  reigned  in  every  heart. 

In  accordance  with  these  recommendations,  Massachusetts  re- 
solved to  stand  solely  on  the  defensive.  For  the  purposes  of  self- 
protection,  she  and  other  colonies  reorganized  their  obsolete 
militia  ;  and  the  minute-men  are  now  first  heard  of.  The  Massa- 
chusetts legislature,  in  further  provision  for  the  future,  now  that 
the  government  of  the  crown  was  daily  becoming  further  and 
further  removed  from  the  people,  appointed  a  Committee  of 
Safety  :  a  body  which  speedily  found  counterparts  in  the  other 
colonies,  and  which  afterward  became  the  model  for  the  famous 
ComiUs  du  Salut  Public  of  France.  To  set  at  naught  this  rude 
organization  for  defence,  Great  Britain  prohibited  the  export  of 
arms  and  munitions  of  war  to  the  colonies. 

While  affairs  were  thus  going  from  bad  to  worse  in  America, 
England  had  the  further  excitement  of  a  bitterly  contested  elec- 
tion. The  ministry  were  everywhere  successful.  Burke  had 
been  returned  from  Bristol  only  after  a  sharp  contest,  and  after 
having  been  previously  rejected  in  Westminster.  In  the  city  of 
London,  where  public  opinion  was  strongly  on  the  side  of  the 
colonies,  four  members  hostile  to  Lord  North  were  returned,  and, 
as  a  still  further  expression  of  opposition  to  the  ministry,  Wilkes 
was  elected  Lord  Mayor,  But  the  result  was  altogether  in  favor 
of  the  Administration,  and  the  king  saw  with  intense  satisfaction 
an  increased  ministerial  majority.  When,  then.  Parliament  met 
in  November,  there  were  only  eighty-six  votes  in  both  Houses 
which  could  be  rallied  in  opposition  to  the  Administration  on 
colonial  measures :  thirteen  in  the  Lords,  and  seventy-three  in  the 
Commons.  If  Parliament  really  represented  the  English  people, 
the  Americans  could  look  to  them  for  few  friends.  But  Parlia- 
ment at  that  time  did  not  represent  the  people.  It  represented 
few  constituencies  other  than  certain  families.     Nevertheless,  it 


LORD   CHATHAM,  285 

cannot  be  denied,  that,  at  the  very  time  when  it  was  hostile  to 
popular  rights  at  home  and  was  striving  to  prevent  the  liberty  of 
the  press,  to  suppress  free  speech,  and  even  to  take  from  the 
people  the  right  of  saying  who  their  representatives  should  be, 
those  same  people  were  sustaining  it  in  its  attacks  on  the  liberties 
of  kindred  but  distant  freemen. 

There  was  one  man,  however,  wno,  whatever  his  personal  im- 
periousness  and  his  exaggerated  notions  of  imperial  power  over 
the  dependencies  might  be,  saw  clearly  that  this  was  a  conflict 
between  constitutional  liberty  and  absolutism,  and  ranged  himself 
with  unfaltering  fidelity  on  the  side  of  freedom.  This  man  was 
Lord  Chatham,  who  again  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
resolved  on  instant  action.  Accordingly,  on  the  20th  January, 
1775,  he  moved  an  address  to  the  king,  praying  that,  in  order  to 
open  a  way  to  the  restoration  of  peace  and  quiet  in  America,  and 
to  soften  animosity,  his  Majesty  should  order  the  troops  to  re- 
move as  soon  as  possible  from  the  town  of  Boston.  In  this  mo- 
tion he  was  supported  by  the  Lords  Rockingham,  Cambden,  and 
Shelburne.  But  the  ministry  retorted,  that,  instead  of  withdraw- 
ing the  troops  that  were  there,  they  should  rather  send  more,  and, 
on  a  division,  only  eighteen  peers  could  be  found  to  support  the 
motion,  among  whom  were  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  Lord 
Grosvenor.     Sixty-eight  lords  voted  against  the  motion. 

But  this  resolute  man  was  not  to  be  rebuffed  when  he  had  once 
taken  a  stand  for  constitutional  liberty.  He  betook  himself  forth- 
with to  the  preparation  of  "A  provisional  Bill  for  settling  the 
Troubles  in  America,"  and  that  he  might  not  err  from  ignorance 
of  the  real  feelings  of  the  Americans  toward  England,  he  person- 
ally sought  the  counsel  of  Dr.  Franklin:  "I  am  come,"  said  he, 
"to  set  my  judgment  by  yours  as  men  set  their  watches  by  a 
regulator."  Having  carefully  considered  its  provisions,  he  laid 
the  bill  on  the  table  of  the  House  of  Lords.  It  declared  in  plain 
terms  the  dependence  of  the  colonies  on  the  crown,  and  their 
subordination  to  the  British  Parliament  in  all  matters  touching  the 
general  weal  of  the  empire,  and  above  all  in  the  regulation  of 
trade.  But  it  proposed,  no  less  explicitly,  that  no  tax  nor  talliage, 
or  other  charge  for  the  revenue,  should  be  levied  from  any  body 
of  British  freemen  in  America  without  the  consent  of  its  own 
representative  assembly.     It  further  declared,  that  delegates  from 


286  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  several  colonies,  lately  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  should,  as 
they  desired,  meet  at  the  same  town  and  hold  another  Congress 
on  the  9th  of  May  ensuing :  then  to  consider,  first,  the  making 
due  recognition  of  the  supreme  legislative  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment, and,  next,  of  making,  over  and  above  the  usual  charges  for 
the  support  of  civil  government  in  the  respective  colonies,  a  free 
grant  to  the  king  of  a  certain  perpetual  revenue  toward  the  al- 
leviation of  the  national  debt.  But  it  was  also  provided,  that  the 
relinquishment  of  the  right  of  taxation  to  the  provincial  assem- 
blies should  not  take  effect  unless  Congress  first  unqualifiedly 
recognized  the  legislative  authority  of  Parliament  as  supreme.  The 
bill  further  provided,  that  the  Admiralty  courts  in  America  should 
be  restrained  to  their  ancient  limits  ;  that  it  should  not  in  future 
be  lawful  to  send  persons  indicted  to  another  colony  or  to  Great 
Britain  for  trial  ;  that  the  acts  of  Parliament  relating  to  America 
since  1764  were  to  be  wholly  repealed  ;  that  the  colonial  judges 
were  to  hold  their  places  during  good  behavior  and  not  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown,  and  that  the  charters  and  constitutions 
of  the  several  provinces  were  not  again  to  be  invaded,  unless  on 
some  legal  ground  of  forfeiture.  "  So,"  ran  the  concluding  words 
of  the  bill,  "so  shall  true  reconcilement  avert  impending  calami- 
ties." 

Lord  Mahon  thinks,'  that  had  this  bill  become  a  law,  the 
Americans  would  have  accepted  it  cheerfully,  and  it  would  have 
been  effectual.  "  The  sword  was  then  slumbering  in  the  scabbard." 
But,  v/as  it  now  possible  for  the  colonists  to  accept  these  pro- 
visions cheerfully,  and  for  the  bill  to  be  effectual  ?  It  is  true  it 
guaranteed,  as  far  as  it  was  worth,  the  independence  of  the  judges, 
and  the  restriction  of  the  Admiralty  courts  to  ancient  limits,  and 
it  reinstated  matters  where  they  stood  in  1764.  But,  would  not 
the  Americans,  after  going  so  far  in  their  opposition  to  parlia- 
mentary rule,  have  asked  themselves,  What  is  the  guaranty  of  an 
Act  of  Parliament  worth,  if  the  charters,  long  since  become  a 
part  of  the  Briti-h  Constitution  itself,  cannot  protect  themselves  ? 
The  Parliament  which  violated  the  charters  can  repeal  this  guar- 
anty and  violate  them  again  ;  this  is  but  placing  the  sheep  in  the 
care  of  the  wolves.  Again  :  it  is  true  that  this  bill  recognized  the 
Congress,  but  in  the  same  breath  it  required  the  colonies  in  Con- 

***  Hist.,"  cap.  li. 


[  PARLIAMENTARY  SUPREMACY.  28/ 

gress  assembled  to  concede  the  very  point  at  issue,  the  right  of 
the  British  Parliament  to  rule  them.  This,  of  course,  was  utterly 
out  of  the  question.  Moreover,  in  so  doing,  the  colonists  were 
not  only  to  concede  this  supremacy  in  the  home  Parliament,  but  to 
concede  to  the  General  Colonial  Parliament  the  right  to  express 
that  concession.  This,  in  the  absence  of  any  special  delegation 
of  power  to  Congress  by  the  individual  colonies,  would  not  have 
been  permitted.  It  was  simply  asking  all  to  concede  what  each 
had  already  refused  to  yield,  or,  worse  still,  it  was  empowering  the 
creature  to  grant  what  the  creators  had  hitherto  denied.  The  Co- 
lonial Congress  was  the  creature  of  certain  local  self-governments, 
created  to  effect  certain  objects  which  each  had  in  common  with 
the  rest,  and  which  objects  were  specified  in  the  credentials  of  its 
representatives.  It  was  not  intended  to  meddle  with  those  sub- 
jects that  properly  belonged  to  individual  legislation.  Yet  this 
bill,  in  recognizing  the  Congress,  ignored  its  authors,  and  thus 
conferred  on  the  creature  powers  the  creators  had  not  endued  it 
with.  It  is  hardly  possible  that,  at  that  stage  of  parliamentary 
conflict,  the  colonists  were  prepared  to  accept  two  parliamentary 
rulers  when  they  were  rejecting  one,  but  rather,  that,  in  spite  of  the 
great  name  which  vouched  for  its  honesty,  the  bill  would  have 
been  tainted  with  the  suspicion  of  an  alliance  between  the  two 
Parliaments.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  legislation  and  rul- 
ing are  two  different  things,  and  that  the  opposition  of  the  Ameri- 
cans was  to  Parliament  as  a  ruler  and  not  as  a  legislator.  When 
its  legislation  took  on  itself  the  character  of  imperial  decrees,  then 
it  was  that  opposition  to  Parliament  broke  forth.  They  would 
have  opposed  their  own  Congress  in  the  same  way  the  moment  it 
usurped  functions  that  had  not  been  granted  it.  In  this  bill  par- 
liamentary supremacy  remained  untouched,  and  so  long  as  that 
was  the  case,  the  Americans  would  not  have  been  content. 

However,  after  a  debate  characterized  by  great  excitement,  the 
English  settled  the  question  for  themselves  by  defeating  the  bill, 
though  the  minority  rose  to  nearly  double  its  former  number. 
This  measure  had  one  good  effect :  it  set  men  to  devising  schemes 
of  conciliation.  Lord  North  tried  his  hand  at  it.  His  scheme  was 
this :  that  the  colonial  assemblies  should  look  after  the  common 
defence  of  the  colonies,  and  each  provide  for  the  civil  government 
of  its  own  province,  and,  so  long  as  the  king  and  Parliament 


288  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

approved  of  such  action,  so  long  Parliament  should  forbear  to  lay 
any  tax  or  duty  within  such  province.  This  met  with  great  op- 
position. The  extremists,  so  blinded  with  rancor  that  they  could 
not  recognize  an  old  friend  in  a  new  guise,  opposed  it  as  being  a 
concession,  while  the  Whigs  of  course  refused  to  have  any  thing  to 
do  with  so  well-known  an  enemy. 

But  a  greater  than  North  tried  what  he  could  do.  Edmund 
Burke  introduced  resolutions  having  for  their  distinct  object  con- 
ciliation with  America.  He,  too,  failed  ;  but  the  effort  which  gave 
the  world  his  immortal  speech  will  never  be  deemed  by  posterity 
to  have  been  entirely  vain. 

All  attempts  toward  conciliation  having  failed,  the  tide  rolled 
on.  In  retaliation  for  the  non-importation  and  non-exportation 
agreements.  Parliament  closed  the  New  England  ports  to  trade, 
and  the  naval  forces  on  that  coast  were  increased  by  two  thou- 
sand, and  the  land  forces  by  more  than  four  thousand  men. 

In  conformity  with  their  plan  for  self-protection,  the  Massa- 
chusetts men  had  gathered  together  some  military  stores  at  a 
place  called  Concord.  Gage  now  determined  to  destroy  these 
stores,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  every  motive  of  military 
prudence  justified  him  in  doing  so.  But  the  times  had  now  be- 
come such  that  the  slightest  act  of  military  caution  was  the  signal 
for  putting  the  torch  to  the  magazine.  No  sooner  was  it  known 
that  troops  were  to  leave  Boston  for  Concord,  than  expresses  rode 
forth  by  night,  and  when  the  day  dawned  the  yeomanry  of  the 
neighborhood  were  getting  under  arms  on  their  village  greens.  At 
sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  nineteenth  of  April  (1775),  the 
detachment,  which  had  moved  out  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  in 
order  the  better  to  effect  its  object  by  surprise,  reached  Lexing- 
ton, a  small  village  eleven  miles  from  Boston,  on  the  road  to  Con- 
cord, from  which  place  it  was  distant  six  miles.  There  a  squad 
of  countrymen  was  already  gathering.  A  collision  ensued  ;  the 
troops  fired  and  several  men  fell  dead,  while  others  were  stretched 
on  the  ground  sorely  wounded.  The  resistance,  however,  was  not 
great  enough  to  stay  the  progress  of  the  troops,  who  continued 
their  march  to  Concord.  Here  they  destroyed  the  stores,  and, 
after  another  encounter  with  the  farmers,  set  out  on  their  return 
to  Boston.     But  the  alarm  throughout  the  country  side  having 


LEXINGTON  AND   CONCORD,  289 

become  general,  they  found  the  road  obstructed  by  parties  of 
minute-men,  who,  wrought  to  frenzy  by  the  slaughter  of  their 
kindred  and  neighbors  in  the  morning,  had  hurried  across  the 
fields  from  every  direction,  each  man  bent  on  avenging  his  rela- 
tive or  friend  by  a  shot  at  the  red-coats.  The  column  was  galled 
from  the  slone  fences  on  its  flanks  by  an  incessant  fire,  which 
could  not  be  returned  with  effect.  The  loss  became  steady,  yet, 
as  their  numbers  diminished,  the  English  did  not  dare  to  halt  and 
defend  themselves,  much  less  attack.  Time  was  fast  becoming 
every  thing  ;  the  command  was  losing  discipline,  it  began  to  hud- 
dle together,  and  it  pressed  confusedly  forward,  its  assailants  gain- 
ing in  numbers  and  boldness  as  they  neared  Lexington.  It  was 
now  evident,  that,  without  relief,  the  column  must  either  cut  its  way 
through  a  fast-thickening  enemy,  or  die  on  the  green  it  had  strewn 
M'ith  bodies  in  the  morning.  The  retreat  was  rapidly  degenerat- 
ing into  a  rout  that  augured  ill  for  a  single  man  of  them  ever 
regaining  Boston,  when  the  head  of  the  column  joyfully  rushed 
into  the  protecting  ranks  of  a  hollow  square,  which,  under  Lord 
Percy,  had  been  prudently  drawn  up  to  receive  them.  Here 
they  threw  themselves  on  the  ground,  "  their  tongues  hanging  out 
of  their  mouths  like  those  of  dogs  after  a  chase,"  said  an  eye- 
witness.* But  little  time  could  be  afforded  for  rest,  and  the  sore- 
beset  and  weary  column  again  took  up  its  march.  Discipline  and 
Percy's  reinforcements,  however,  told  in  its  favor.  It  pushed  its 
way  through  the  irritated  swarms,  who  taunted  them  with  the 
changed  fortunes  of  the  day,  and  who  kept  calling  out  to  Percy  : 
"  Chevy  Chase  !  Chevy  Chase  !  "  and  toward  sunset  it  reached 
Boston,  pursued  up  to  the  very  fortifications  by  the  countrymen, 
now  frantic  that  "  these  murderers,"  as  they  called  them,  should 
escape.  Nearly  three  hundred  of  the  English  were  dead  or 
wounded,  since,  by  way  of  bravado,  their  band  at  daybreak  had 
played  *'  Yankee  Doodle"  on  the  road  to  Lexington. 

The  affair  of  Lexington  and  Concord  acted  upon  the  sensitive 
people  like  a  shock  of  electricity.  The  intense  emotion  that 
possessed  North  and  South  alike  revealed  a  sense  of  kinship  the 
colonists  had  never  before  entertained,  and,  as  this  burst  forth, 
the  sense  of  kinship  with  Great  Britain  sank  suddenly  down  into 

»Stedman's  "  Hist.  Am.  War"  i,  118. 


^90  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY, 

dead  ashes.  The  New  England  militia  flocked  together  from  all 
quarters,  and  Boston  speedily  found  itself  beleaguered  by  its  own 
countrymen  ;  nearly  twenty  thousand  occupied  the  heights  over- 
looking the  town.  With  an  imprudence,*  which  Congress,  who 
stood  solely  on  the  defensive,  would  have  liked  to  reprove,  Ticon- 
deroga  and  Crown  Point  were  surprised  and  taken.  May  14th, 
the  same  day  the  Second  Congress  met  at  the  State  House  in 
Philadelphia,  when  twelve  colonies  sat  down  together.  A  few 
days  later,  Massachusetts  took  the  chair  in  the  person  of  John 
Hancock.  The  proposal  of  Lord  North  was  rejected  in  a  report 
which  assigned  the  following  reasons  for  its  rejection  :  that  it  was 
a  high  breach  of  the  privilege  of  determining  the  purposes  for 
which  moneys  should  be  granted  ;  that  it  was  unreasonable,  inas- 
much as  it  compelled  the  colonies  to  purchase  the  favor  of  Par- 
liament without  knowing  the  price  ;  that  it  insidiously  sought  to 
divide  the  colonies  and  set  them  against  each  other  ;  that  it  was 
offered  in  the  presence  of  fleets  and  armies,  which  at  that  moment 
were  being  reinforced  ;  that  it  was  unnecessary,  unsatisfactory, 
and  unjust,  and  a  violation  of  their  natural  plan  of  government, 
and  that  it  was  deceptive,  inasmuch  as,  under  a  question  which 
appeared  to  be  one  merely  of  laying  taxes,  there  was  really  hidden 
the  claim  of  a  right  to  alter  charters  and  to  rule  absolutely.  In 
conclusion,  the  report  expressed  the  conviction,  that  the  Ameri- 
cans had  only  themselves  to  rely  upon  to  defeat  the  ministry  and 
render  their  liberties  secure. 

Though  blood  had  been  shed — and  more  still  was  shed  on  the 
17th  of  June,  at  Bunker  Hill, — it  will  be  observed,  that  there 
was  no  expression  indicative  of  a  desire,  much  less  a  determina- 
tion, to  be  politically  independent.  On  the  contrary,  the  Conserva- 
tives, led  by  Dickinson,  still  held  the  floor,  and  while  measures 
were  taken  for  defence,  Congress  still  clung  to  the  hope  of  secur- 
ing their  rights  as  members  of  the  British  Empire.  It  was  with 
this  hope,  yet  possessing  strength  but  daily  weakening,  that  they 
resolved  on  another  petition  to  the  king.  The  anxious  hopes  of 
the  whole  country  once  more  fixed  themselves  on  this  often  tried 
but  never  successful  expedient,  and  acrimony  and  revolution 
paused  to  observe  its  effect.     In  this  petition,  which  was  drawn 

,  *  The  event  justified  the  affair.  But,  as  an  act  of  active  hostility,  the  Con- 
gress, for  some  time,  was  much  embarrassed  by  it. 


SECOND  CONGRESS:  CONTINENTAL  ARMY  &*  MONEY.     2f^t 

lyy  Mr.  Dickinson,  the  most  affectionate  terms  were  employed' 
respecting  the  king.  It  declared  that  the  colonists  entertained 
too  tender  a  regard  for  the  kingdom  from  which  they  derived 
their  origin  ever  to  seek  such  a  reconciliation  as  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  her  dignity  or  her  welfare,  and  it  simply  besought 
his  Majesty  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  designate  some  mode  by^ 
which  a  happy  reconciliation  could  be  effected.  After  all  the 
delegates  had  signed  it,  it  was  entrusted  to  Richard  Penn,  one  of 
the  proprietaries  and  a  loyalist,  to  bear  to  the  throne,  when  thd 
responsibility  would  be  upon  the  king.  Penn  departed  on  his 
healing  mission,  and  Congress  adjourned  to  the  fifth  of  September. 

During  its  session,  however.  Congress,  stimulated  by  the  action 
of  Bunker  Hill,  which  had  occurred  in  the  meanwhile,  had  pre- 
pared for  the  worst.  It  organized  a  common  force,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  defence  only,  under  the  name  of  the  Continental  Army. 
Of  this  army  it  made  George  Washington,  a  representative  of  the 
land-holding  interest  in  the  South,  commander-in-chief.  It  then; 
adopted  certain  measures  designed  to  help  the  colonies  and  to 
hamper  any  course  adverse  to  the  general  welfare  :  such  as  the 
prohibition  of  supplies  to  the  British  fishing  fleet,  and  to  colonies 
not  acting  with  them,  and,  of  course,  to  the  military  and  naval 
forces  then  in  possession  of  Boston  and  the  adjacent  waters.  It 
forbade  the  negotiation  of  bills  of  exchange  drawn  by  British 
officers.  It  declared  that  no  obedience  was  due  to  any  act  of 
Parliament  altering  or  repealing  the  charter  of  Massachusetts, 
and  it  recommended  to  the  people  of  that  colony  to  exercise  for 
themselves  the  powers  of  government  until  their  charter  was  re- 
stored to  them.  In  order  to  further  the  common  ends,  notes  on' 
the  joint  credit  of  the  colonies  were  authorized  to  be  issued,  and 
from  that  time  the  country  made  use  of  Continental  money. 

Congress  reassembled  on  the  5th  of  September,  but  so  few 
members  were  present  that  it  adjourned  to  the  13th,  when,  for  the 
first  time,  Georgia  having  arrived,  the  Thirteen  Colonies  came' 
together  and  proceeded  to  business.  In  the  meantime,  all  hearts 
had  followed  Penn,  who  bore  what  Franklin,  who  had  now  come 
home,  pithily  styled  "  the  last  petition."  They  were  doomed  to* 
disappointment.  It  was  received  with  a  silence  which  was  broken 
only  by  the  announcement  that  his  Majesty  would  decline  answer- 
ing it,  and,  as  if  to  forestall  any  effect  it  might  produce  in  faror 


292  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

of  the  petitioners,  the  very  day  it  was  presented  to  the  minister, 
the  Proclamation  for  suppressing  rebellion  and  sedition  issued  to 
the  heralds.  These,  a  few  days  afterward,  proclaimed  in  due 
form  at  Westminster,  Temple  Bar,  the  Royal  Exchange,  and 
Other  accustomed  places,  that,  whereas  many  subjects  in  divers 
parts  of  the  colonies  of  North  America,  forgetting  their  allegiance, 
and  after  obstructing  the  lawful  commerce  of  loyal  subjects,  had 
proceeded  to  open  and  avowed  rebellion,  and  that  this  rebel- 
lion had  been  promoted  by  the  counsels  of  divers  wicked  and 
desperate  persons  within  the  realm  of  England,  now  it  was  com- 
manded all  civil  and  military  officers,  and  all  loyal  subjects,  to  use 
their  utmost  endeavors  to  suppress  this  rebellion,  and  to  give  full 
information  of  all  persons  corresponding  with  the  persons  in  arms 
in  North  America,  in  order  to  bring  them  to  condign  punishment. 

The  news  of  the  rejection  of  the  petition,  and  that  they  had 
been  actually  proclaimed  rebels,  reached  the  colonies  accom- 
panied with  the  further  information,  that  ten  thousand  merce- 
naries were  also  to  be  used  against  them.  As  indication  of  a 
vigorous  policy,  Lord  George  Germain  was  made  head  of  the 
American  department,  in  place  of  Dartmouth,  and  Gage,  who  had 
been  slow  to  wrath,  was  recalled,  and  the  Howes  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  forces.  These  signs  were  ominous,  but  the  most 
hopeless  feature  of  all  was  the  unanimity  of  the  English  people 
against  America.  It  is  true,  that  the  Proclamation  had  been 
hissed  on  the  steps  of  the  Exchange,  and  that  Wilkes  would  not 
permit  the  mace  to  be  borne  during  the  ceremony,  but  loyal  ad- 
dresses to  the  king  poured  in  from  all  classes,  the  ministry  party 
in  Parliament  was  compact  and  overwhelmingly  great,  the  Op- 
position was  small  and  feeble,  and  Lord  Rockingham  was  per- 
fectly warranted  in  writing  to  Edmund  Burke,  that  "the  violent 
measures  toward  America  are  fairly  adopted  and  countenanced 
by  a  majority  of  individuals  of  all  ranks,  professions,  or  occupa- 
tions in  this  country."  * 

The  king's  speech  came  later  and  left  no  room  for  either  doubt 
or  hope.  It  inveighed  against  the  "  desperate  conspiracy"  and 
**  general  revolt,"  and  announced  a  large  increase  of  the  land  and 
naval  forces  in  America.  But  one  man  among  the  ministers 
seems  to  have  appreciated  the  danger  and  to  have  been  governed 

'Burke's  *  Corresp.,"  ii,  68. 


THE  MODERATES,  293 

by  discretion — Grafton  resigned,  and,  in  resigning,  told  the  king, 
that,  deluded  themselves,  his  ministers  were  deluding  him. 

The  Opposition  tried  to  bring  up  the  petition  Penn  had  brought 
over,  as  ground  for  conciliation,  and,  in  both  Houses,  started 
debate  on  the  employment  of  mercenaries.  They  were  over- 
whelmingly defeated,  and  Parliament  proceeded  to  secure  the 
colonies  by  a  persistent  course  of  legislation,  which  made  Burke 
say,  a  year  or  two  afterward  :  "  It  affords  no  matter  for  very  pleas^ 
ing  reflection  to  observe,  that  our  subjects  diminish  as  our  laws 
increase."  * 

While  Parliament  was  thus  attempting  to  legislate  peace  into 
the  colonies,  and  absolute  rule  into  itself,  Congress  was  acting 
its  part.  Proclaimed  as  rebels,  repelled  from  the  throne,  and 
with  the  door  of  Parliament  to  be  opened  to  them  only  in  the 
case  of  abject  submission,  the  condition  of  the  colonies  was  des- 
perate indeed.  But,  left  to  themselves,  they  acted  for  themselves. 
From  one  position  they  rapidly  advanced  to  another,  their  deters- 
mination  to  remain  free  grew  more  and  more  fixed,  and  it  was  in 
answer  to  popular  sentiment  that  Congress  advised  resistance  at 
Charleston,  created  a  naval  code,  organized  a  committee  of  cor- 
respondence with  foreign  powers,  and  recommended  several  colo- 
nies to  set  up  governments  for  themselves.  Men  now  talked 
openly  of  independence. 

Still  the  varying  fortunes  of  war — for  such  it  now  was — had  the 
effect  to  keep  alive  the  necessity,  if  not  the  desire,  of  leaving  open 
a  way  to  reconciliation.  The  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  through 
the  inspiration  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  gave  expression  to  this  pru- 
dence, by  instructing  its  delegates  to  "dissent  from  and  utterly 
reject  any  propositions,  should  such  be  made,  that  may  cause  or 
lead  to  a  separation  from  our  mother-country,  or  a  change  of  the 
form  of  this  government."  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Delaware,  and 
New  York  expressed  their  opinion  in  nearly  the  same  terms,  and 
thus  the  Middle  Colonies,  arrayed  in  mass  on  the  side  of  conserva- 
tism, maintained,  or  endeavored  to  maintain,  an  equipoise  between 
the  extremes. 

But  there  happened  at  this  time,  that  is,  in  January,  1776,  an 
event  which,  perhaps,  had  more  to  do  with  bringing  about  the  im- 
mediate result  of  independence  than  any  thing  else,  and  that  was 

* "  Lett,  to  Sheriffs  of  Bristol,"  1777. 


2g4  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  publication  of  Tom  Paine's  "Common  Sense."  Paine  him- 
iself  was  but  a  new-comer,  without  means,  without  an  established 
character  or  name,  and  his  book  is  deficient  in  scope  and  logic, 
and  marred,  moreover,  by  coarseness.  And  yet  the  effect  of  the 
work  is  beyond  dispute.  It  did  more  to  accomplish  the  immedi- 
;ate  fact  of  independence  than  all  the  grave  deliberations  and  elo- 
quent outpourings  of  a  senate,  at  whose  door  its  author  was  hardly 
worthy  to  stand.  No  one  now  reads  "Common  Sense,"  except 
from  curiosity  or  historical  inquiry  :  but,  the  production  of  the 
moment,  it  was  just  what  the  moment  demanded,  and  its  welcome 
was  enthusiastic.  It  was  published  in  Philadelphia,  where  con- 
servatism had  its  stronghold,  and  it  was  thus  at  once  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  garrison.  Much  of  its  effect  must  be  attrib- 
uted to  its  being  published  anonymously.  That  effect  was  great, 
and  in  the  temper  the  colonists  then  were,  the  printing-press  was 
kept  day  and  night  throwing  off  copies.  The  work  may  be  briefly 
described  as  a  plea  for  independence  and  a  continental  govern- 
ment. So  far,  opinion  had  gone  no  further  than  to  a  mere  con- 
federation, but  Paine  took  a  bold  stand  for  an  actual,  positive 
central  government.  In  their  eagerness  to  discuss  the  advantages 
ox  disadvantages  of  such  a  government,  men  did  not  notice  that 
(hey  had  tacitly  conceded  independence,  and  when  they  awoke  to 
that  fact,  they  were  already  too  familiar  with  the  thought  ever  to 
relinquish  it.  In  this  way  the  notion  of  independence  became 
fixed  in  the  public  mind,  and  the  effect  "  Common  Sense". wrought, 
was  simply  to  provoke  the  action  of  forces  which,  hesitating  until 
then,  were  now  ready  and  eager  to  act. 

Dickinson,  with  the  conservatives  at  his  back,  resisted  the 
pressure  for  independence  with  a  force  to  which  the  purity  of  his 
own  character  and  that  of  his  following  lent  great  weight.  But 
in  revolutionary  times  nothing  can  stay  those  advances  which  are 
Compelled  by  the  exigencies  of  the  moment.  The  very  men  who 
hesitate  the  most  are  forced  by  the  present  necessity  to  do  things 
which  the  next  instant  become  precedents  against  them,  and,  thus, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  they  are  hurried  along  to  the  point  they 
are  striving  to  avoid.  Hence,  the  daily  necessity  of  defence,  by 
compelling  these  conservatives  to  acts  of  sovereignty  which  they 
would  have  eschewed,  compelled  them,  too,  to  that  final  assertion 


THE  PROGRESSIVES.  29.5 

of  sovereignty,  a  declaration  of  independence.  During  the  winter, 
Congress,  in  self-defence,  had  to  order  the  disarming  of  the  Tories, 
the  equipment  of  privateers,  the  opening  of  the  ports  to  all  nations, 
and  had  to  deal  directly  with  foreign  powers.  All  these  things, 
and  many  more,  embraced  the  exercise  of  sovereignty,  and,  as 
each  occurred,  it  straightway  became  a  precedent  which  promptly 
arrayed  itself  on  the  side  of  independence.  "There  is  a  rapid 
increase,"  wrote  Franklin,  in  April,  "  of  the  formerly  small  party 
who  were  for  an  independent  government." 

This  progress  of  public  sentiment  is  clearly  illustrated  by  the 
Resolution  of  the  15th  of  May.  Congress  had  heretofore  been 
very  chary  in  advising  individual  colonies  to  exercise  any  thing 
like  sovereign  powers,  but  in  this  Resolution  it  was  recommended 
to  all  the  colonies,  wherever  it  should  be  considered  necessary,  to 
form  such  governments  as  might  conduce  to  their  happiness  in 
particular,  and  that  of  America  in  general.  This  was,  in  effect, 
telling  the  colonies  that  they  were  sovereigns,  that  they  were  to 
look  to  no  one  but  themselves  for  political  organization,  and  that 
they  should  set  up  for  themselves.  Practically,  it  was  an  intima- 
tion to  each  colony  to  declare  itself  independent. 

This  resolution  was  strenuously  resisted  by  the  Conservatives, 
whose  vehemence  was  augmented  by  the  fact,  that  the  preamble 
declared  it  irreconcilable  with  conscience  to  take  oaths  to  support 
the  crown.  As  far  as  solidity  of  argument  is  concerned,  and 
familiarity  with  the  principles  of  government,  the  Moderates,  in 
this  instance  at  least,  certainly  outshone  their  opponents.  But  the 
time  for  conservatism  had  gone  by,  and  henceforward  the  Pro- 
gressives had  the  upper  hand  in  the  votes,  if  not  in  the  argu- 
ments.    The  tide  of  revolution  was  now  in  full  sweep. 

In  order  to  have  the  sustaining  force  of  public  opinion  in  the 
course  thus  foreshadowed,  and  which  none  were  so  blind  but  that 
they  could  see,  the  members  of  Congress  began  asking  the  As* 
.semblies  which  had  elected  them  what  their  opinion  respecting 
independence  was,  and  what  the  best  course  for  Congress  to  pur- 
sue ;  and  some  of  them,  to  make  sure  of  the  desired  answer^ 
themselves  wrote  energetic  letters  to  influence  the  minds  of  those 
who  were  to  instruct  them.  North  Carolina  was  the  first  to  an- 
swer, and  replies  from  three  others  were  in  by  the  middle  of  May. 
They  were  for  independence.     The  rest  did  not  answer  before 


296  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

the  Progressives  determined  to  force  matters,  and  on  the  7th  df 
June  (1776),  Richard  Henry  Lee,  in  behalf  of  the  Virginia  dele- 
gates, submitted  resolutions  concerning  independence,  confedera- 
.tion,  and  foreign  alliances.  Prefacing  his  motion  with  a  speech, 
lie  offered  the  following  : 

**  That  these  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and 
independent  States  ;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to 
the  British  Crown  ;  and  that  all  political  connection  between  them 
and  the  State  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dis- 
solved. 

"  That  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  take  the  most  effectual 
measures  for  forming  foreign  alliances. 

"That  a  plan  of  confederation  be  prepared  and  transmitted  to 
the  respective  Colonies  for  their  consideration  and  approbation." 

It  will  be  noticed,  that,  in  spite  of  "  Common  Sense,"  the  local 
self-governments  went  no  further  than  mere  confederation.  John 
Adams  seconded  the  motion,  and  its  consideration  was  post- 
poned until  the  following  morning,  when  the  members  were  or- 
dered to  attend  punctually. 

The  next  morning  these  resolutions  were  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  and  were  debated  with  closed  doors,  as  was 
the  custom,  until  seven  in  the  evening,  when  an  adjournment  was 
had  until  Monday.  On  Monday  the  debate  again  continued  un- 
til evening,  when  it  being  thought  best  to  await  the  fast-maturing 
minds  of  a  few  colonies,  it  was  resolved  to  postpone  the  resolu- 
tion agreed  upon  until  the  ist  of  July,  and  in  the  meanwhile,  that 
no  time  be  lost,  a  committee  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  declara- 
tion in  conformity  to  it.  On  the  next  day  a  committee  was 
chosen  to  perform  this  duty. 

Of  this  great  and  anxious  debate  we  have  not  a  single  word  by 
direct  report.  We  have  nothing  but  the  entries  in  the  journal, 
eked  out  by  the  recollections  of  some  of  the  surviving  actors  years 
afterward.  We  know  the  substance  of  what  was  said  by  some, 
and  a  few  expressions,  as  used  by  such  or  such  a  man,  are  to  be 
found  here  and  there  in  the  writings  of  these  men,  but  given  en- 
tirely from  memory.  But,  from  the  lips  of  those  who  hung  upon 
each  other's  words  from  Saturday  morning  until  Monday  night, 
and  who  wrought  such  mighty  deeds  in  Israel,  there  has  not  come 
down  to  us  one  single  sentence. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE,  ^gf 

On  the  1 2th  of  June  a  committee  of  one  from  each  coK)i1y  was 
•chosen  to  report  the  form  of  a  confederation,  and  a  committee  of 
five  to  prepare  treaties  with  foreign  powers.  ,  ^    -'xC 

By  the  last  week  in  June  the  question  of  independence  or  iio 
independence,  was  virtually  settled  in  the  affirmative  in  every 
colony,  except  New  York.  The  time,  foreseen  at  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  subject  to  a  future  day,  had  now  arrived,  and,  accord- 
ingly, the  draft  of  a  Declaration  of  Independence,  of  which  Thomas 
Jefferson  was  the  author,  was  reported  on  the  28th  of  June,  and 
was  laid  on  the  table.  On  the  first  of  July,  Congress  voted  "  to 
resolve  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  to  take  into  considera- 
tion 'the  resolution  respecting  independency,*  and  to  refer* the 
draft  of  the  declaration '  to  this  committee."  On  the  importunity 
of  fresh  delegates  from  New  Jersey,  the  subject  was  discussed 
anew,  John  Adams  speaking  in  favor  of  separation.  John  Dick- 
inson replied  to  him  with  consummate  ability  and  force,  and 
based  his  argument  on  the  inexpediency  of  independence  at  that 
time.  Adams  rejoined,  and  was  followed  by  others  for  and 
against  the  measure.  The  New  York  members  were,  in  view  of 
their  instructions,  excused  from  voting,  but  the  resolution  was 
agreed  to  on  a  division,  though  the  final  question  was  postponed 
until  the  following  day,  the  2d,  when  twelve  colonies  (New  York, 
as  has  been  seen,  not  voting)  resolved  "  that  these  United  Colo- 
nies are  and  of  right  ought  to  be  free  and  independent  States ; 
that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown, 
and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of 
Great  Britain  is  and  ought  to  be  totally  dissolved." 

From  that  time  forth  the  word  "colonies"  gave  place  to  the 
word  "  States  "  in  America. 

The  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  immediately 
taken  up  and  considered,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  fourth  of 
July,  the  committee  rose,  and  Harrison  reported  the  Declaration 
as  having  been  agreed  upon.  It  was  then  unanimously  adopted  : 
Great  Britain  was  divested  of  her  sovereignty,  the  people  of  the 
different  States,  each  one  for  itself,  assumed  it,  and  the  Revolu- 
tion was  accomplished  in  every  thing  save  the  proof  of  physical 
ability  to  maintain  its  results  against  the  world. 

During  the  weary  years  that  followed,  the  conflict  of  consti- 
tutional liberty  with  absolutism  was  transferred  from  the  closet 


"29^  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

and  the  senate  to  the  field,  where  the  fate  of  British  absolutism 
was  finally  sealed  by  defeat.  Local  self-government  won  the 
day. 

Free  inquiry  had  done  its  work  in  America.  It  had  passed 
from  the  religious  subjects  of  our  Puritan  age  to  the  secular  ones 
of  the  Age  of  State  Development,  and,  in  doing  so,  had  brought 
about  the  same  revolution  in  politics  here  as  it  had  done  in  Eng- 
land :  that  is  to  say,  it  had  created  and  brought  to  a  similar  con- 
clusion a  warfare  between  prerogative  and  popular  freedom  in 
this  country  as  it  had  once  done  in  Great  Britain.  There  it  ter- 
minated in  the  Revolution  of  1688,  which  established  definitely 
the  limitations  of  the  prerogative,  or  that  element  of  sovereignty, 
which,  outside  of  popular  self-government,  had  ever  displayed  its 
hostility  to  free  institutions  by  claiming  to  be  above  and  indepen- 
dent of  them,  and  free  from  any  accountability  whatever.  From 
the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  government  of  England  became,  in 
truth,  for  the  first  time,  a  constitutional  government.  With  that 
achievement  the  forces  of  free  inquiry  in  English  politics  altered 
their  course  ;  they  abandoned  their  warlike  attitude  and  rested 
content  in  securing  and  preserving  what  they  had  acquired. 
Henceforth,  the  growth  of  their  possessions  was  due,  not  to  the 
arts  of  war,  but  to  the  arts  of  peace.  But,  in  America,  the  at- 
tempts of  arbitrary  power  to  enlarge  itself  at  the  expense  of  local 
self-government,  though  interrupted,  were  persistent.  Absolutism 
looked  on  this  country  as  a  field  in  which  to  regain  the  footing  it 
had  lost  on  the  soil  of  England.  It  did  not  act  blindly,  but  chose 
its  instruments  with  a  cunning  which  would  have  been  success- 
ful but  for  the  obstinacy  of  personal  liberty.  It  worked  on  the 
colonies  through  Parliament  and  commerce ;  this  secured  America 
to  Great  Britain  by  the  bonds  of  interest,  that  by  those  of  political 
dependence. 

The  colonists  left  England  with  a  conviction  of  the  omnipo- 
tence of  Parliament.  The  struggles  of  generations  had  at  last 
ended  in  the  establishment  of  a  free  legislature,  and  the  emigrants 
went  forth  with  the  notion,  that,  now  that  this  had  been  accom« 
plished,  nothing  more  remained  to  be  done  ;  the  security  of 
liberty  was  rendered  certain,  and  the  highest  good  of  free  govern- 
ment was  attained.     Nothing  was  so  great  in  their  eyes  as  the 


LOCAL   SELF-GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED.  299 

Parliament  of  England,  and  the  notion,  that  what, made  Parlia- 
ment so  great  to  Britons  made  also  the  Parliament  of  a  petty 
colony  just  as  great  to  its  handful  of  people,  had  yet  to  be  wrung 
from  hard  destiny  and  the  slow-evolving  years.  The  crown  saw 
its  opportunity,  and  it  was  quick  to  foster  the  sentiment  that  the 
Parliament  of  England  was  naturally  the  Parliament  of  all  the 
British  possessions.  That  principle  once  expanded  into  a  prin- 
ciple of  statecraft,  absolutism  would  have  had  nothing  further  to 
do  than  to  rule  America  by  act  of  Parliament. 

The  extent  to  which  this  notion  reached  is  astonishing,  and  it 
only  goes  to  show  how  dangerous  to  liberty  are  its  own  friends  ; 
for  here  we  behold  a  free  Parliament,  the  last  great  triumph  of 
self-government,  itself  used  against  freedom.  Had  this  wide- 
spread idea  been  acted  upon  in  the  days  of  the  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance, we  now  see  clearly  that  absolutism  would  have  got  such  a 
foothold  in  our  country  as  it  never,  in  human  probability,  would 
have  lost,  and  America  might  to-day  have  been  the  seat  of  that 
personal  rule  in  government  which  the  Revolution  of  1688  had 
effectually  destroyed  in  the  British  Isles  :  for,  with  this  notion  of 
the  supremacy  of  Britain's  Parliament,  there  went,  as  part  of  it, 
the  further  notion,  that  it  was  to  apply  a  different  set  of  principles 
to  the  government  of  the  colonies  from  what  it  did  to  the  govern- 
ijient  of  England.  But  the  bold  tongue  of  James  Otis  sounded 
the  inquiry  which  forever  rejected  the  doctrine  of  parliamentary 
supremacy  in  the  provinces,  which  placed  that  supremacy  in  the 
provincial  Parliaments,  and,  in  so  doing,  secured  the  provincial 
liberties.  Otis  himself,  great  as  he  was  and  conscious  of  the 
magnitude  of  his  work,  still,  as. other  agents  of  liberty  have  been, 
hardly  knew  what  he  did.  He  died  in  the  belief  that  the  Parlia- 
ment of  England  was  something  greater  than  the  Parliament  of 
Massachusetts  :  but  when,  in  his  all-compelling  argument,  he 
showed  forth  the  Writs  as  the  instruments  of  an  absolutism  which 
was  using  Parliament  for  its  own  ends,  and  when  he  traced  those 
encroachments  of  prerogative  back  to  Charles  II.,  and  declared 
that  that  monarch  had  courted  Parliament  as  a  mistress,  he  ex- 
posed the  whole  plan,  and  he  dragged  it  forth  into  the  pure  air 
only  that  it  should  crumble  into  dust.  Free  inquiry  at  once 
roused  itself  to  action.  What  was  this  Parliament,  and  what  had 
it  to  do  with  the  colonies  ?  were  the  questions  heard  on  every 


300  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBER  T Y. 

side.  What  was  this  prerogative,  and  what  had  sucn  a  question- 
able shape  to  do  in  America  ?  Though,  in  spite  of  reason,  the 
vague  and  groping  notion  that  the  Parliament  of  England  must 
be  something  greater  than  the  Parliament  of  Virginia  or  the  Par- 
liament of  Massachusetts  stuck  tenaciously,  it  finally  gave  way, 
and  parliamentary  freedom  at  last  established  itself  on  American 
soil  as  a  purely  local  self-government.  Instead  of  existing  for 
one  people  only  and  in  one  locality,  this  freedom  was  to  exist  for 
all  who  spoke  the  English  tongue  wherever  it  had  an  abiding 
place,  and  who  could  show  they  were  fit  to  have  it  by  asserting  its 
existence  among  them.  Instead  of  dwelling  only  in  Westminster 
Hall,  it  was  to  find  a  habitation  in  thirteen  different  commonwealths 
at  once,  and  the  rule  was  laid  down,  that  no  autonomy  based  on  the 
Teutonic  principle  of  local  self-government  should  so  much  as  be 
considered  free,  until  the  absolute  freedom  of  its  own  Parliament, 
a  freedom  restricted  by  race,  tribal  and  physical  limitations  only^ 
was  guaranteed  it  in  advance,  and  maintained  inviolate  from  the 
beginning. 

Free  inquiry  gave  England  a  constitution,  and  it  did  the  same 
for  America.  Applied  to  government  it  had  for  its  results  the 
limitation  of  the  prerogative,  the  annihilation  of  arbitrary  power, 
and  the  expansion  of  the  liberty  of  the  individual  :  pushed  to  the 
last  extremity,  it  turned  not  upon  its  tracks,  but  hewed  its  way 
by  boldly  vesting  the  sovereignty  itself  in  the  citizen.  The  con- 
flict by  which  these  results  were  simultaneously  attained  continued 
until  its  climax  was  reached  in  the  American  Revolution,  whereby 
the  supremacy  of  local  self-government  was  assured,  and  constitu- 
tional government,  on  the  basis  of  individual  liberty,  was  firmly 
established.  Thus  the  Revolution  of  1776  gave  to  America  what 
the  Revolution  of  1688  gave  to  England,  constitutional,  local  self- 
government. 

In  looking  back  to  the  period  when  the  English  people,  still 
under  the  influence  of  the  Reformation,  took  upon  themselves  a 
new  character,  and  felt  the  impulse  which  directed  them  across 
the  Atlantic  to  found  new  States  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  it  is 
well  to  inquire  what  has  been  the  Motive  of  their  Development  ? 
The  answer  from  first  to  last,  from  the  convocation  of  Pym's 
Parliament  and  before,  to  the  achievement  of  American  Inde- 


THE  LAW  OF  DEVELOPMENT   VERIFIED.  30I 

pendence,  is  the  Assertion  of  Individuality.  First,  that  assertion 
in  matters  of  conscience  ;  lastly,  that  assertion  in  matters  of  gov- 
ernment. 

When  the  English  tribe  started  on  its  career  through  these  gen- 
erations, it  was  submissive  to  credulity  in  religion  and  submissive 
to  unaccountable  power  in  the  state.  Its  social  form  was  a 
political  tyranny,  erected  upon  religious  credulity.  When  it 
emerged  from  the  conflicts  of  these  ages,  its  whole  character  was 
changed.  In  England,  in  the  place  of  intolerance,  conscience  is 
free,  and  the  church  instead  of  using  the  civil  power  to  enforce 
its  decrees,  is  but  a  mere  appendage  of  a  government  which,  In 
turn,  uses  it  for  its  own  purposes  :  while  in  the  place  of  unaccount- 
able power,  there  stands  a  parliamentary  or  representative  govern- 
ment, with  prerogative  shorn  of  its  terrors.  There,  the  social  form 
has  become  one  in  which  the  Freedom  of  the  Citizen  is  founded 
upon  Freedom  of  Conscience.  In  America  we  behold  a  like 
spectacle.  Here,  too,  intolerance  has  given  way  to  a  freedom  of 
conscience  which  will  not  even  listen  to  a  union  of  Church  and 
State,  or  any  thing  in  the  nature  of  any  connection  whatever. 
In  the  eye  of  government  there  is  no  Church  but  churches,  which, 
under  the  law,  are  simply  corporate  aggregations  of  individuals, 
and  which  are  entitled  only  to  the  protection  accorded  to  all 
corporations  alike.  In  the  place  of  unaccountable  power  we 
behold  a  purely  representative  government,  and  here,  too,  the 
social  form  is  one  where  the  Freedom  of  the  Citizen  is  built 
upon  Freedom  of  Conscience.  The  tables  are  completely 
turned. 

In  observing  the  successive  stages  of  this  mighty  change,  we 
see  that  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  which  moved  Individuality  to  action, 
first  acted  toward  the  establishment  of  a  Constitutional  Govern- 
ment in  England  ;  that,  the  work  having  been  accomplished  there, 
she  next  betook  herself  westward  to  the  silent  culture  of  States 
from  colonies  ;  and,  lastly,  that  when  the  time  of  their  maturity  had 
come,  she  fiercely  drew  the  sword,  and,  asserting  their  existence, 
took  a  step  still  further,  and  boldly  transferred  the  sovereignty 
from  the  throne  to  the  people. 

In  all  this  course,  we  behold  the  expansion  of  individual  rights 
at  the  cost  of  unaccountable  power,  whether  that  power  be  in 
Church  or  State.      It  is  the  history,  for  the  time  being,  of  the 


302  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY. 

career  of  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  as  it  existed  in  the  English  tribe. 
First  of  her  works  came  Freedom  of  Conscience ;  next  came  the 
culture  of  Tribal  Institutions  in  a  desert  where  there  was  nothing 
to  hinder  their  growth  ;  and,  last  of  all,  came  Popular  Sovereignty- 
founded  upon  Freedom  of  Conscience,  and  sustained  by  institu- 
tions as  old  and  as  free  as  the  tribe  itself.  This  trilogy  of  Eras 
covers  the  most  glorious  period  of  the  English  race  known  to 
history. 


APPENDIX 


303 


APPENDIX  A. 


THE  BOARD  OF  LORDS  OF  TRADE  AND  PLANTATIONS. 

The  general  supervision  and  management  of  the  British  plantations  in 
America  and  elsewhere  was  entrusted  by  King  Charles  II.,  by  royal  commis- 
sion, dated  I  Dec.,  1660,  to  a  standing  council,  who  were  instructed  to  corre- 
spond with  the  several  governors,  etc.,  and  in  general  to  dispose  of  all  matters 
relating  to  the  good  government  and  improvement  of  the  colonies.  Subsequent 
commissions  were  from  time  to  time  issued  to  various  individuals,  substantially' 
of  the  same  tenor,  constituting  them  a  Council  of  Foreign  PMantalions  for  the 
time  being.  On  the  21st  December,  1674,  the  king  revoked  the  commission  for 
the  existing  council,  and  directed  their  books  and  papers  to  be  delivered  to  the 
clerk  of  the  Privy  Council.  By  order  in  council,  12  March,  1765,  King  Charles 
II.  referred  whatever  matters  had  been  under  the  cognizance  of  the  late  Coun- 
cil of  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations  to  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council, 

*  *  *  and  directed  them  to  meet  once  a  week,  and  report  their  proceedings 
to  the  king  in  council.  During  the  reign  of  James  II.  the  affairs  of  the  plan- 
tations continued  to  be  managed  by  a  similar  committee  of  the  Privy  Council. 

*  *  *  Upon  the  accession  of  King  William  III.,  in  February',  1689,  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council  continued  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  plantations, 
until  their  growing  importance  suggested  the  necessity  of  a  separate  and  distinct 
department  of  government  for  their  direction. 

The  year  1696  is  the  era  of  the  permanent  organization  of  what  is  familiarly 
known  to  our  historians  as  the  "  Board  of  Trade."  On  the  15th  May  in  that  year 
King  William  III.,  by  royal  commission,  constituted  and  appointed  the  great 
officers  of  state,  for  the  time  being,  and  certain  other  persons,  "Commissioners 
during  the  royal  pleasure,  for  promoting  the  trade  of  the  kingdom,  and  for  in- 
specting and  improving  the  plantations  in  America  and  elsewhere."  This 
board  was  empowered  and  required  to  examine  into  the  general  condition  of  the 
trade  of  England  and  of  foreign  parts,  and  to  make  representations  to  the  king 
thereupon  ;  to  take  into  their  custody  all  letters  and  papers  belonging  to  the 
Plantation  Office  ;  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  plantations  ;  to  examine 
into  the  instructions  of  the  governors,  etc.,  and  report  their  conduct  to  the 
king  ;  to  present  the  names  of  proper  persons  for  governors  and  secretaries, 
etc..  in  the  colonies,  to  the  king  in  council ;  to  examine  into  and  consider  the 
*  305 


306  APPENDIX. 

acts  passed  in  the  colonies  ;  to  hear  complaints,  and  make  representations  there- 
upon, etc. ;  and  with  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers.  The  Board  of 
Trade  and  Plantations,  as  thus  organized,  was  continued  through  the  successive 
reigns  by  royal  commissions,  until  its  final  dissolution  by  Act  of  Parliament,  in 
July,  1/82. — Brodhead's  "  Report  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York," 
1845,  I  ;  "Docs,  relating  to  the  Colonial  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  Genl.  Introd,"  pp. 
xxviii,  et  seq.  ;  see  also  /</.,  vol.  iii,  Introd.,  xv. 

It  was  only  in  matters  of  great  secrecy  and  concern  that  the  Provincial  Gov- 
ernors were  required  to  correspond  directly  with  the  Secretaries  of  State. — Id.^ 
\y  xxix. 

On  the  suppression  of  the  Board  in  1782,  the  business  was  transferred  to  the 
Secretaries  of  State. 


APPENDIX  B. 


ti . 


EXTRACTS  RELATING  TO  FREEDOM  OF  CONSCIENCE,  FROM  THE 
GREAT  LAW,  OR,  THE  BODY  OF  LAWS  OF  THE  PROVINCE  OF 
PENNSYLVANIA  AND  TERRITORIES  THEREUNTO  BELONGING, 
PASSED  AT  AN  ASSEMBLY  AT  CHESTER,  ALIAS  UPLANDS,  THE 
7TH  DAY  OF  THE  lOTH  MONTH,  DECEMBER,   1682." 

I  "Whereas  the  glory  of  Almighty  God,  and  the  good  of  mankind,  is  the 
reason  and  end  of  government,  and  therefore  government,  in  itself,  is  a  vener- 
able ordinance  of  God  ;  and  forasmuch  as  it  is  principally  desired  and  intended 
by  the  proprietaiy  and  governor,  and  the  freemen  of  the  province  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  territories  thereunto  belonging,  to  make  and  establish  such  laws  as 
shall  best  preserve  true  Christian  and  civil  liberty,  in  opposition  to  all  unchris- 
tian, licentious,  and  unjust  practices,  whereby  God  may  have  his  due,  Csesarhis 
due,  and  the  people  their  due,  from  tyranny  and  oppression  of  the  one  side,  and 
insolency  and  licentiousness  of  the  other,  so  that  the  best  and  firmest  founda- 
tion may  be  laid  for  the  present  and  future  happiness  of  both  the  governor  and 
people  of  this  province  and  territories  aforesaid,  and  their  posterity.  Be  it 
therefore  enacted,  by  William  Penn,  proprietary  and  governor,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  deputies  of  the  freemen  of  this  province,  and  counties 
aforesaid,  in  assembly  met,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  that  these  follow- 
ing chapters  and  paragraphs  shall  be  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  terri- 
tories thereof. 

I.  "Almighty  God  beir\g  only  Lord  of  conscience,  father  of  lights  and 
spirits,  and  the  author  as  well  as  object  of  all  divine  knowledge,  faith,  and  wor- 
ship, who  only  can  enlighten  the  mind,  and  persuade  and  convince  the  under- 
standing of  people,  in  due  reverence  to  his  sovereignty  over  the  souls  of  mankfnd: 
It  is  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  no  person  now  or  at  any  time  here- 
after living  in  this  province,  who  shall  confess  and  acknov.lctlge  one  Almighty 
God  to  be  the  creator,  upholder,  and  ruler  of  the  world,  a»d  that  professeth 


APPENDIX,  307 

mm  or  herself  obliged  in  conscience  to  live  peaceably  and  justly  under  the  civil 
government,  shall  in  anywise  be  molested  or  prejudiced  for  his  or  her  conscien- 
tious persuasion  or  practice,  nor  shall  he  or  she  at  any  time  be  compelled  to  fre- 
quent or  maintain  any  religious  worship,  place,  or  ministry  whatever,  contrary 
to  his  or  her  mind,  but  shall  freely  and  fully  enjoy  his  or  her  Christian  liberty 
in  that  respect,  without  any  interruption  or  reflection;  and  if  any  person 
shall  abuse  or  deride  any  other  for  his  or  her  different  persuasion  and  practice 
in  matter  of  religion,  such  shall  be  looked  upon  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace, 
and  be  punished  accordingly.     *     *     * 

2.  "And  be  it  further  enacted,  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  all  officers 
and  persons  commissionated  and  employed  in  the  service  of  the  government  of 
this  province,  and  all  members  and  deputies  elected  to  serve  in  assembly 
thereof,  and  all  that  have  right  to  elect  such  deputies,  shall  be  such  as  profess 
and  declare  they  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  son  of  God,  and  Saviour  of 
the  world,  and  that  are  not  convicted  of  ill-fame,  or  unsobcr  and  dishonest  con- 
versation, and  that  are  of  one  and  twenty  years  of  age  at  least."    *    *    * 


APPENDIX  C. 

INTOLERANCE    OF    AMERICAN    PURITANISM. 

**  Most  of  the  early  Reformers  were  intolerant.  Most  bitter  was  the  persecu- 
tion, in  the  Low  Countries,  of  the  Arminians  by  the  Calvinists,  who  had  very 
recently  been  delivered  from  persecution  themselves.     *     *     * 

**  The  celebrated  '  Pilgrim  Fathers,'  who  fled  from  the  tyranny  of  Laud  and 
his  abettors,  to  America,  and  are  described  as  having  '  sought  only  freedom  to 
worship  God,*  had  no  notion  of  allowing  the  same  freedom  to  others,  but 
enacted  and  enforced  the  most  severe  penalties  against  all  who  differed  from 
them,  and  compelled  the  ever-venerated  Roger  Williams,  the  great  champion  of 
toleration,  to  fly  from  them  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he  founded  a  colony  on  his 
own  truly  Christian  system.  One  of  the  principal  founders  of  the  New  England 
colony  [Sir  Richard  Saltonstall],  remonstrated  with  these  persecutors,  saying  (in 
a  letter  given  in  a  late  number  of  the  Edinbiirgh  Revietv  [Oct.,  1S55,  p.  564, 
and  in  Ilildreth's  "Hist.  U.  S."  i,  3S2,  383,]):  'Reverend  and  dear  sirs, 
whom  I  unfeignedly  love  and  respect,  it  doth  not  a  little  grieve  my  spirit  to  hear 
what  sad  things  are  reported  daily  of  your  tyranny  and  persecution  in  New 
England,  as  that  you  fine,  whip,  and  imprison  men  for  their  consciences. 
First,  you  compel  such  to  come  into  your  assemblies  as  you  know  will  not  join 
you  in  your  worship  ;  and  when  they  show  their  dislike  thereof,  or  witness 
against  it,  then  you  stir  up  your  magistrates  to  punish  them,  for  such,  as  you 
conceive,  their  public  aff"ronts.  Truly,  friends,  this  your  practice  of  compelling 
any,  in  matters  of  worship,  to  that  whereof  they  are  not  fully  persuaded,  is 
to  make  them  sin  ;  for  so  the  Apostle  (Romans,  xiv,  23),  tells  us  ;  and  many 
are  made  hypocrites  thereby,  conforming  in  their  outward  acts  for  fear  of  pun- 


308  APPENDIX. 

ishment.  We  pray  for  you,  and  wish  you  prosperity  every  way ;  hoping  the 
Lord  would  have  given  you  so  much  light  and  love  there,  that  you  might 
have  been  eyes  to  God's  people  here,  and  not  to  practise  those  courses  in  the 
wilderness  which  you  went  so  far  to  prevent.'  They  [Wilson  and  Cotton],  re- 
plied :  '  Better  be  hypocrites  than  profane  persons.  Hypocrites  give  God  part 
of"  his  due — the  outward  man  ;  but  the  profane  person  giveth  God  neither  out- 
wrard  nor  inward  man.  You  know  not  if  you  think  we  came  into  this  wilder- 
ness to  practise  those  courses  which  we  fled  from  in  England.  We  believe 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  men's  inventions  and  God's  inventions  ;  we 
fled  from  men's  inventions,  to  which  we  else  should  have  been  compelled  ;  we 
compel  none  to  men's  inventions.' 

"  About  the  same  time  Williams  sent  a  warm  remonstrance  to  his  old  friend 
and  governor,  Endicott,  against  these  violent  proceedings.  The  Massachusetts 
theocracy  could  not  complain  that  none  showed  them  their  error ;  they  did  not 
persevere  in  the  system  of  persecution  without  having  its  wrongfulness  pointed 
out. 

"  *  Had  Bunyan,'  said  the  Reviewer,  '  opened  his  conventicle  in  Boston,  he 
VDuld  have  been  banished,  if  not  whipped  ;  had  Lord  Baltimore  appeared 
there,  he  would  have  been  liable  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  If  Penn  had 
escaped  with  either  of  his  ears,  the  more  pertinacious  Fox  would,  doubtless, 
have  ended  by  mounting  the  gallows,  with  Marmaduke  Stephenson  or  William 
Leddra.  Yet  the  authors  of  these  extremities  would  have  had  no  admissible  pre- 
text. They  were  not  instigated  by  the  dread  of  similar  persecution,  or  by  the 
impulse  to  retaliate.  There  was  no  hierarchy  to  invite  them  to  the  plains  of 
Armageddon  ;  there  was  no  Agag  to  hew  in  pieces,  or  kings  and  nobles  to  bind 
with  links  of  iron.  They  persecuted  spontaneously,  deliberately,  and  securely. 
Or  rather,  it  might  be  said,  they  were  cruel  under  difficulties.  They  trod  the 
grapes  of  their  wine  press  in  a  city  of  refuge,  and  converted  their  Zoar  into  a 
house  of  Egyptian  bondage  ;  and,  in  this  respect,  we  conceive  they  are  with- 
out a  parallel  in  history.'" — Bacon's  "Essays,"  Annotations  by  Archbishop 
Whately  to  Essay  V,  "Of  Adversity." 

^  VYour  New  England  mini«;ters,  so-called,  seem  to  have  much  zeal  for  religion, 
but  have  a  peculiar  talent  in  the  application  and  practice;  and  by  looking  no 
farther  than  their  own  narrow  limits,  do  not  consider  the  universality  of  God's 
love  to  the  creation,  and  how  pleasing  it  is  in  his  sight  that  we  carry  a  moral 
and  civil  respect  and  love  to  our  fellow-creatures,  as  brethren  by  creation  and 
the  workmanship  of  his  hands,  all  of  a  piece  as  to  our  naturals." — Extract  from 
letter  of  Isaac  Norris,  A.D.,  1700. — "Penn.  Corresp.,  Memoirs  of  Hist.  Soc. 
of  Penna.,"  ix,  23. 

What  must  have  been  the  psychological  condition  of  a  people  whose  most 
precious  specimen  of  literature  at  that  time,  1647, — one  of  the  few  specimens 
extant, — breathed  the  spirit  emanating  from  the  following  quotations  from 
Nathaniel  Ward's  "  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam  "  ?  It  was  a  great  book  in  its 
day — it  ran  through  four  editions  in  the  first  year, — and  unquestionably  reflects 
truly  the  moral  and  mental  condition  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  and 


APT  END  IX,  309 

who  took  it  to  their  bosoms.  Cotton,  with  all  his  learning  and  good  antecedents, 
was  bad  enough,  but,  of  all  the  bigots  who  left  their  mark  on  the  unformed 
character  of  the  youthful  colony,  none  surpassed  Ward  in  intolerance.  Yet 
this  man  had  had  every  thing  to  make  him  good  ;  all,  in  fact,  that  ability,  learn^ 
ing,  travel,  good  society,  and  the  companionship  of  such  men  as  Lord  Bacon, 
Usher,  and  David  Paraeus  could  do.  They  were  all  in  vain.  The  more  light 
thrown  on  his  mind,  the  more  it  contracted.  He  may  have  done  some  good  by 
helping  the  simple  laws  of  the  colony  on  their  feet,  despotic  and  cruel  though 
they  were,  but  that  was  all,  and,  after  remaining  in  this  country  twelve  years, 
the  bigot  returned  to  England.  Here  are  a  few  specimens  extracted  fron^ 
Tyler's  "  History  of  American  Literature,"  i,  pp.  230,  et  seq.^  the  italics  being 
my  own.  It  may  be  said  of  him,  what  he  said  of  the  Devil,  **  Sathan  is  now  ia 
his  passions     *     *     *     j^^e  loves  to  fish  in  roiled  waters."  -■ 

"  We  have  been  reputed  a  colluvies  of  wild  opinionists  swarmed  into  a  remote 
wilderness,  to  find  elbow-room  for  our  fanatic  doctrines  and  practices.  I  trust 
our  diligence  past,  and  constant  sedulity  against  such  persons  and  courses  will 
plead  better  things  for  us.  I  dare  take  upon  me  to  be  the  herald  of  New  Eng- 
land so  far  as  to  proclaim  to  the  world,  in  the  name  of  our  colony,  that  aii 
Fainilists^  Aniinomians,  Anabaptists,  and  other  enthusiasts,  shall  have  free 
liberty — to  keep  away  from  tis  ;  and  such  as  will  come — to  be  gone  as  fast  as  they 
can,  the  sooner  the  bettei-."  Toleration,  he  tells  us,  is  "  profaneness,"  laying 
"religious  foundations  on  the  ruin  of  true  religion  ;  which  strictly  binds  every 
conscience  to  contend  earnestly  for  the  truth,  to  preserve  unity  of  spirit,  faith, 
and  ordmances,  to  be  all  like-minded,  of  one  accord :  every  man  to  take  his 
brother  unto  his  Christian  care  *  *  *  and,  by  no  means  to  permit  heresies  of 
erroneous  opinions.  *  *  *  ^y  Jieart  hath  naturally  detested  four  things : 
the  standing  of  the  Apocrypha  in  the  Bible,  foreigners  dtvelling  in  my  country  to 
crowd  our  native  subjects  into  the  cortiers  of  the  earth,  alchemized  coins,  tolera- 
tion of  divers  religions  or  of  one  religion  in  segregant  shapes.  *  *  *  Poly- 
piety  is  the  greatest  impiety  in  the  world.  *  *  *  "Po  authorize  an  untruth  by 
a  toleration  of  state,  is  to  build  a  sconce  against  the  walls  of  heaven,  to  batter  God 
out  of  his  chair.  *  *  *  He  that  is  willing  to  tolerate  any  religion  or  discrepant 
way  of  religion,  besides  his  own,  unless  it  be  in  matters  merely  indifferent, 
either  doubts  of  his  own,  or  is  not  sincere  in  it.  He  that  is  willing  to  tolerate 
any  unsound  opinion,  that  his  own  may  also  be  tolerated,  though  never  so 
sound,  will  for  a  need  hang  God's  Bible  at  the  Devil's  girdle.  *  *  *  It  is 
said  that  men  ought  to  have  liberty  of  their  conscience,  and  that  it  is  persecu- 
tion to  debar  them  of  it.  *  *  *  Let  all  the  wits  under  the  heavens  lay  their 
heads  together  and  find  an  assertion  worse  than  this  (one  excepted,)  [and]  I  will 
petition  to  be  chosen  the  universal  idiot  of  the  world.  *  *  *  Since  I  knevr 
what  to  fear,  my  timorous  heart  hath  dreaded  three  things :  a  blazing  star  ap- 
pearing in  the  air  ;  a  state-comet,  I  mean  a  favorite,  rising  in  a  kingdom  ;  a  new 
opinion  spreading  in  religion.  *  *  *  If  the  whole  conclave  of  hell  can  so 
compromise  exadverse  and  diametrical  contradictions  as  to  compolitize  such  a 
multimonstrous  maufrey  of  heteroclites  and  quicquidlibets  quietly,  I  trust  I  may 
say  with  all  humble  reverence,  they  can  do  more  than  the  senate  of  heaven." 


3IO  APPENDIX. 

Here  is  the  soul  of  Torquemada  and  the  buffoonery  of  Tetzel.  Mr.  Tyler, 
however,  cites  a  redeeming  passage,  which  in  justice  to  Ward  should  be  given, 
though  he  significantly  points  out  how  annihilating  it  is  to  Ward's  own  doctrine 
against  toleration  :  "Ye  will  find  it  a  far  easier  field  to  wage  war  against  all 
the  armies  that  ever  were  or  will  be  on  earth,  and  all  the  angels  of  heaven,  than 
to  take  up  arms  against  any  truth  of  God." 

With  the  annihilation  of  his  book  by  the  only  good  thing  in  it,  let  us  leave 
him  ;  not,  however,  without  giving  the  full  title  of  the  greatest  literary  effort 
of  its  day  in  Massachusetts:  "The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam  in  America: 
willing  to  help  'mend  his  native  country,  lamentably  tattered  both  in  the  upper- 
leather  and  sole,  with  all  the  honest  stitches  he  can  take  ;  and  as  willing  never 
to  be  paid  for  his  work  by  old  English  wonted  pay.  It  is  his  trade  to  patch  all 
the  year  long  gratis.  Therefore  I  pray  gentlemen  keep  your  purses.  By 
Theodore  de  la  Guard.  '  In  rebus  arduis  ac  tenui  spe,  fortissima  quaeque 
consilia  tutissima  sunt,' — Cic.     In  English  : 

When  boots  and  shoes  are  torn  up  to  the  lefts. 
Cobblers  must  thrust  their  awls  up  to  the  hefts; 
This  is  no  time  to  fear  Apclles'  gramm  : 
Ne  sutor  quidem  ultra  crepidam.' 

London.  Printed  by  J.  D.  and  R.  I.  for  Stephen  Bowtell,  at  the  sign  of  the 
Bible,  in  Pope's  Head  Alley,  1647."  For  sentiments  similar  to  those  of  Ward, 
see  the  elder  Winthrop,  Cotton,  Dudley,  and  Norton. 


APPENDIX  D. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A  REPORT  OF  THE  LORDS  COMMISSIONERS  OP 
TRADE  AND  PLANTATIONS,  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS. 
DATED    YE    27TH    OF    MARCH,    170I. 

We  have  on  many  occasions  represented  to  his  majesty,  as  we  did  likewise  in 
our  report  to  the  late  House  of  Commons,  the  state  of  such  plantations  in 
America  as  are  under  the  government  of  proprietors  and  charters,  arid  howr 
inconsistent  such  governments  are  with  the  trade  and  welfare  of  this  kingdom. 

That  these  Colonies  in  general  have  noways  answered  the  chief  design  for 
which  such  large  tracts  of  land  and  privileges  and  immunities  were  granted  by 
the  crown. 

That  they  have  not  conformed  themselves  to  the  several  acts  of  Parliament 
for  regulating  trade  and  navigation,  to  which  they  ought  to  pay  the  same  obedi- 
ence and  submit  to  the  same  restrictions  as  the  other  plantations,  which  are 
subject  to  his  majesty's  immediate  governments  ;  though,  on  the  contraiy,  in 
most  of  those  proprietarj'  and  charter  governments,  the  Governors  have  not  ap- 
plied themselves  to  his  majesty  for  his  approbation,  nor  have  taken  the  oaths 
required  by  the  Acts  of  Trade,  both  which  qualifications  are  made  necessary  by 
the  late  act  for  preventing  frauds  and  regulating  abuses  in  the  plantation  trade. 


APPENDIX,  311 

That  they  have  assumed  to  themselves  a  power  to  make  laws  contrary  and  re- 
pugnant to  the  laws  of  England,  and  directly  prejudicial  to  our  trade,  some  of 
them  having  refused  to  send  hither  such  laws  as  they  have  there  enacted,  or 
have  sent  them  very  imperfectly. 

That  divers  of  them  having  denied  appeals  to  his  majesty  in  council,  by 
which  not  only  the  inhabitants  of  those  Colonies,  but  others,  his  majesty's  sub- 
jects, are  deprived  of  that  benefit  enjoyed  in  the  plantations,  under  his  majesty's 
immediate  government,  and  the  parties  aggrieved  without  remedy  from  the  il- 
legal proceedings  of  their  courts. 

That  these  Colonies  continue  to  be  the  refuge  and  retreat  of  pirates  and 
illegal  traders,  and  the  receptacle  of  goods  imported  thither  from  foreign 
parts,  contrary  to  the  law,  no  return  of  which  commodities,  those  \obliterated~\ 
all  of  which  is  much  encouraged  by  their  not  admitting  of  appeals  as  aforesaid. 

That  by  raising  and  lowering  their  coin  from  time  to  time,  to  their  particular 
advantage,  and  the  prejudice  of  other  Colonies,  by  exempting  their  inhabitants 
from  duties  and  customs  to  which  other  Colonies  are  subject,  and  by  harbor- 
ing of  servants  and  fugitives,  these  governments  tend  greatly  to  the  under- 
mining the  trade  of  the  other  plantations,  and  entice  and  draw  away  the  people 
thereof,  which  diminution  of  hands  in  Colonies  more  beneficial  to  the  Crown, 
and  do  very  much  \obliterated'\.  Independent  Colonies  do  turn  the  course  of 
trade  to  \obliterated~\  propagating  woollens  and  other  manufactures  proper  to 
England,  and  not  of  applying  their  thoughts  and  endeavors  to  such  as  are  fit  to 
be  encouraged  in  those  pans,  according  to  the  true  design  and  intention  of  those 
settlements. 

That  these  governments  do  not  put  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence  against 
an  enemy,  nor  do  they  sufficiently  provide  themselves  with  arms  and  ammu- 
nition, many  of  them  not  having  a  regular  militia,  being  no  otherwise  at 
present  but  in  a  state  of  anarchy  and  confusion.  To  cure  these  and  other 
great  mischiefs  in  these  Colonies,  and  to  introduce  such  administration  of 
government  and  fit  regulations  of  trade  as  may  make  them  duly  subser- 
vient and  useful  to  England,  we  have  humbly  offered  our  opinion  that  the 
charters  of  several  proprietors  and  other  instituting  them  to  a  right  of  gov- 
ernment, should  be  resumed  to  the  crown,  and  these  Colonies  put  into  the 
same  state  of  dependency  as  those  of  his  majesty's  other  plantations,  with- 
out further  prejudice  to  every  man's  particular  property  and  freehold,  which 
we  conceive  cannot  otherwise  be  well  effected  than  by  the  legislative  power 
of  this  kingdom. — "  Memoirs  of  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.,"  vol.  ix.  Appendix,  pp. 
379.  380. 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  well  to  read  the  passages  bearing  on  this  subject 
in  the  "  Diary"  of  Evelyn,  who  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  what  was 
known  as  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations.  From  these  it  will  appear  that 
alarm  and  mistrust  respecting  New  England  were  constant : 

"  — but  what  we  most  insisted  on  was  to  know  the  condition  of  New  England, 
which  appearing  to  be  very  independent  as  to  their  regard  to  Old  England  or 
his  Majesty,  rich  and  strong  as  they  now  were,  there  were  greate  debates  in 


312  APPENDIX, 

what  style  to  write  to  them,  for  the  condition  of  that  colony  was  such  that  they 
were  able  to  contest  with  all  other  Plantations  about  them,  and  there  was  feare 
of  their  breaking  from  all  dependance  on  this  nation  *  *  *  some  of  our 
Council  were  for  sending  them  a  menacing  letter,  which  those  who  better  un- 
derstood the  peevish  and  touchy  humor  of  that  Colonic,  were  utterly  against." 
— Evelyn's  "  Diary,"  May  26,  1671.  First  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Trade  and  Plantations. 

*•  I  v/ent  to  Council,  where  was  produc'd  a  most  exact  and  ample  information 
of  the  state  of  Jamaica,  and  of  the  best  expedients  as  to  New  England,     *    * 
*     since  we  understood  they  were  a  people  almost  upon  the  very  brink  of  re- 
nouncing any  dependance  on  the  Crowne." — Id.,  June  6,  1671. 

*'  — the  Council  concluded  that  in  the  first  place  a  letter  of  amnestic  should 
be  dispatch'd." — /</.,  June  21,  1671. 

**  A  full  appearance  at  the  Council.  The  matter  in  debate  was  whether  we 
should  send  a  Deputy  to  New  England,  requiring  them  of  the  Massachusets  to 
restore  such  to  their  limits  and  respective  possessions  as  had  petition'd  the 
Council  ;  this  to  be  the  open  Commission  only,  but  in  truth  with  seacret 
instructions  to  informe  the  Council  of  the  condition  of  those  Colonies,  and 
whether  th«y  were  of  such  power  as  to  be  able  to  resist  his  Majesty  and  declare 
for  themselves  as  independent  of  the  Crowne.  which  we  were  told,  and  of  which 
of  late  years  made  them  refractorie.  Coll.  Middleton  being  call'd  in,  assur'd 
us  they  might  be  curb'd  by  a  few  of  his  Majesty's  first  rate  fregates,  to  spoil 
their  trade  with  the  islands  ;  but  tho*  my  Lo.  President  [the  Earl  of  Sand- 
wich,] was  not  satisfied,  the  rest  were,  and  we  did  resolve  to  advise  his  Majesty 
to  send  Commissioners  with  a  formal  Commission  for  adjusting  boundaries,  etc., 
with  some  other  instructions." — Id.,  August  3,  1671. 

*•  We  also  deliberated  on  some  fit  person  to  go  as  Commissioner  to  inspect 
their  actions  in  New  England,  and  from  time  to  time  report  how  that  people 
stood  affected." — Id.,  Feb.  12,  1672. 

"  Now  our  Council  of  Plantations  met  at  Lord  Shaftesbury's  (Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer)  to  reade  and  reforme  the  Draught  of  our  new  Patent,  joyning 
the  Council  of  Trade  to  our  political  capacities." — Id.,  Sept.  I,  1672. 

In  1701  this  same  board  declared,  that,  "  the  independency  the  colonies  thirst 
after,  is  notorious." 

In  1703,  Quarry  wrote  :  "  Commonwealth  notions  improve  daily,  and,  if  it  be 
not  checked  in  time,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  English  subjects  will  be 
thought  too  narrow." 

In  1705,  the  following  occurs  : — "The  colonists  will,  in  process  of  time,  cast 
off  their  allegiance  to  England  and  set  up  a  government  of  their  own,"  *  *  * 
and  that  *'  their  increasing  numbers  and  wealth,  joined  to  their  great  distance 
from  Britain,  would  give  them  an  opportunity,  in  the  course  of  some  years,  to 
throw  off  their  dependence  on  the  nation,  and  declare  themselves  a  free  state, 
if  not  curbed  in  time,  by  being  made  entirely  subject  to  the  crown. — Some 
great  men  professed  their  belief  of  the  feasibleness  of  it,  and  the  probability  of 
its  some  time  or  other  actually  coming  to  pass."^ — "  Defence  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Charters,"  Jeremiah  Dummer,  32,  33. 


APPENDIX,  313 

"We  have  caught  them  at  last."  said  Choiseul,  Bancroft's  "  Hist.  U.S.," 
chap.  XX,  and  Lord  Mansfield  declared,  that,  "ever  since  the  Peace  of  Paris, 
he  always  thought  the  northern  Colonies  were  meditating  a  state  of  indepen- 
dency on  Great  Britain." — Id.,  id. 

But,  though  such  expressions  were  used  here  and  abroad,  and  such  desires 
undoubtedly  did  exist  in  the  breasts  of  individuals,  nothing  like  a  wish  for 
political  independence  was  at  all  general  among  the  people,  and  I  have  nd 
doubt  that  John  Adams  expressed  the  feeling  exactly  in  the  following  words  : — 
"  There  is  great  ambiguity  in  the  expression,  *  there  existed  in  the  Colonies  a 
desire  of  independence.'     It  is  true  there  always  existed  in  the  Colonies  a  de- 
sire of  independence  of  Parliament  in   the  articles  of  internal  taxation  and  in- 
ternal policy,  and  a  very  general,  if  not  a  universal  opinion,  that  they  were 
constitutionally  entitled  to  it,  and  as  general  a  determination,  if  possible,  to 
maintain  and  defend  it.     But  there  never  existed  a  desire  of  independence  of 
the  crown,  or  of  general  regulations  of  commerce  for  the  equal  and  impartial 
benefit  of  all  parts  of  the  empire.      It  is  true,  there  might  be  times  and  circum- 
stances ia  which  an  individual  or  a  few  individuals,  might  entertain  and  ex- 
press a  wish  that  America  was  independent  in  all  respects,  but  these  were  *  raH 
nantes  in  gurgite  z-asio.'     For  example,  in   one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
fifty-six,  seven,  and  eight,  the  conduct  of  the  British  generals  Shirley,  Brad- 
dock,   Loudon,  Webb,  and  Abercrombie   was  so  absurd,  disastrous,  and  de- 
structive, that  a  very  general  opinion  prevailed  that  the  war  was  conducted  by 
a  mixture  of  ignorance,  treachery,  and  cowardice  ;  and  some  persons  wished  we 
had  nothing  to  do  with  Great  Britain  forever.     Of  this  number  I  distinctly 
remember  I  was  myself  one,  fully  believing  that  we  were  able  to  defend  our- 
selves against  the  French  and  Indians,  without  any  assistance  or  embarrass- 
ment from  Great  Britain.      *      *      *      That  there  existed  a  general  desire  of 
independence  of  the  crown  in  any  part  of  America  before  the  Revolution,  is  as  far 
from  the  truth  as  the  zenith  is  ftom  the  nadir.     That  the  encroaching  dispo- 
sition of  Great  Britian  would  one  day  attempt  to  enslave  them  by  an  unlimited 
submission  to  Parliament  and  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  was  early  foreseeii 
by  many  wise  men  in  all  the  States  ;  that   this  attempt  would  produce  resist- 
ance  on  the  part  of  America,  and  an  awful  struggle,  was  also  foreseen,  but 
dreaded  and  deprecated  as  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  befall  them.     For 
my  own  part,  there  was  not  a  moment  during  the  Revolution,  when  I  would  not 
have  given  every  thing  I  ever  possessed  for  a  restoration  to  the  state  of  things 
before  the  contest  began,  provided  we  could  have  had  any  efficient  security  for 
its  continuance." — Letter  to  George  Alexander  Otis,  "  Life  and  Works  of  John 
Adams,"  x,  394,  395  ;  dated  9  February,  1821.     And  see  letter  from  same  to 
William  Tudor,  Id.,  x,  373,  in  which  is  also  quoted  [pp.  372,  373]   the  follow-;^ 
ing  paragraph  from  a  letter  io  Dennys  de  Berdt,  authorized  by  the  committed 
composed   of  J.    Otis,    Sam.   Adams,   Col.   Otis,    Maj,   Hawley,   and   Samuet* 
Dexter:—  ** 

"  When  we  mention  the  rights  of  the  subjects  in  America,  and  the  interest^ 
we  have  in  the  British  constitution,  in  common  with  all  other  British  subjects, ' 
we  cannot  justly  be  suspected  of  the  most  distant  thought  of  an  independency 


314  APPENDIX, 

on  Great  Britain.  Some,  we  know,  have  imagined  this  of  the  colonists  ;  and 
others,  perhaps,  may  have  industriously  propagated  it,  to  raise  groundless  and 
unreasonable  jealousies  of  them  ;  but  it  is  so  far  from  the  truth,  that  we  appre- 
hend the  colonies  would  refuse  it,  if  offered  to  them,  and  would  even  deem  it 
the  greatest  misfortune  to  be  obliged  to  accept  it.  They  are  far  from  being  in- 
sensible of  their  happiness  in  being  connected  with  the  mother  country,  and  of 
the  mutual  benefits  derived  from  it  to  both."  s 

After  the  temper  of  the  colonies  had  been  ruffled  by  the  Stamp  Act,  there  are 
to  be  found  expressions,  such  as  this  extract  from  The  American  Whig^  A.  D., 
1769  (New  York),  contains,  though  they  were,  as  John  Adams  says,  confined  to 
individual  and  not  general  opinion, 

"  This  country  will  shortly  become  a  great  and  flourishing  empire,  inde- 
pendent of  Great  Britain  ;  enjoying  its  civil  and  religious  liberty,  uncontami- 
nated  and  deserted  of  all  control  from  bishops,  the  curse  of  curses,  and  from 
the  subjection  of  all  earthly  kings.  The  corner-stones  of  this  great  structure  are 
already  laid,  the  materials  are  preparing,  and  before  six  years  roll  about,  the 
great,  the  noble,  the  stupendous  fabric  will  be  executed." 


APPENDIX  E. 

THE    THREE    ACTS. 

THE    ACT    OF    NAVIGATION. 

STAT.    12    CAR.    II.,    C.    18. — A.D.    1660. 

"  An  act  for  the  encouraging  and  increasing  of  shipping  and  navigation. 

* '  For  the  increase  of  shipping  and  encouragement  of  the  navigation  of  this- 
nation,  wherein,  under  the  good  Providence  and  protection  of  God,  the  wealth, 
safety,  and  strength  of  this  kingdom  is  so  much  concerned,  be  it  enacted,  that 
from  and  after  the  first  day  of  December,  1660,  and  from  thence  forward,  no 
goods  or  commodities,  whatsoever,  shall  be  imported  into,  or  exported  out  of, 
any  Lmds,  islands,  plantations,  or  territories,  to  his  Majesty  belonging,  or  in  his 
possession,  or  which  may  hereafter  belong  unto  or  be  in  the  possession  of  his 
Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors  in  Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  in  any  other  ship 
or  ships,  vessel  or  vessels,  whatsoever,  but  in  such  ships  or  vessels,  as  do  truly 
and  without  fraud,  belong  only  to  the  people  of  England  and  Ireland,  dominion 
of  Wales,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  or  are  of  the  build  of,  and  belong- 
ing to,  any  of  the  said  lands,  islands,  plantations,  or  territories,  as  the  proprie- 
tors and  right  owners  thereof,  and  whereof  the  master,  and  three  fourths  of  the 
mariners,  at  least,  are  English  ;  under  the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture  and  loss  of 
all  the  goods  and  commodities  which  shall  be  imported  into,  or  exported  out  of 
any  of  the  aforesaid  places,  in  any  other  ship  or  vessel,  as  also  of  the  ship  or 
vessel,  with  all  its  guns,  furniture,  tackle,  ammunition,  and  apparel  ;  one  third 
part  thereof  to  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors  ;  one  third  part  to  the  gov- 


APPENDIX.  315 

ernor  of  such  land,  plantation,  island,  or  territory,  where  such  default  shall  be 
committed,  in  case  the  said  ship  or  goods  be  there  seized  :  or,  otherwise,  that 
third  part  also  to  his  Majesty,  his  heirs,  and  successors  ;  and  the  other  third  part 
to  him  or  them  who  shall  seize,  inform,  or  sue,  for  the  same  in  any  court  of  rec- 
cord,  by  bill,  information,  plaint,  or  other  action,  wherein  no  essoin,  proteciion, 
or  wa^er  of  law  shall  be  allowed.  And  all  admirals,  and  other  commanders  at 
sea,  of  any  of  the  ships  of  war,  or  other  ships,  having  commission  from  his  Majes- 
ty, or  from  his  heirs  or  successors,  are  hereby  authorized  and  strictly  required 
to  seize  and  bring  in  as  prize  all  such  ships  or  vessels  as  shall  have  offended 
contrary  hereunto,  and  deliver  them  to  the  Courts  of  Admiralty,  there  to  be 
proceeded  against ;  and  in  case  of  condemnation,  one  moiety  of  such  forfeitures 
shall  be  to  the  use  of  such  admirals,  or  commanders,  and  their  companies,  to 
be  divided  and  proportioned  among  them,  according  to  the  rules  and  orders  of 
the  sea,  in  case  of  ships  taken  prize  ;  and  the  other  moiety  to  the  use  of  his 
majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors." 

Section  second  enacts,  that  all  governors  shall  take  a  solemn  oath  to  do  their 
utmost,  that  every  clause  shall  be  punctually  obeyed. 

Sectioji  third.  And  it  is  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforesaid  that  no 
goods  or  commodities  whatsoever  of  the  growth,  production,  or  manufacture  of 
Africa,  Asia,  or  America,  or  any  part  thereof,  or  which  are  described  or  laid 
down  in  the  usual  maps  or  cards  of  those  places,  be  imported  into  England, 
Ireland,  or  Wales,  islands  of  Guernsey  or  Jersey,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon- 
Tweed,  in  any  other  ship  or  ship's  vessel  or  vessels  whatsoever,  but  in  such  as 
do  truly  and  without  fraud  belong  only  to  the  people  of  England  or  Ii-eland, 
dominion  of  Wales,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  or  of  the  lands,  islands, 
plantations,  or  territories  in  Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  to  his  Majesty  belonging, 
as  the  proprietors  and  right  owners  thereof,  and  whereof  the  master  and  three 
fourths  at  least  of  the  mariners  are  English  under  penalty,  etc. 

Section  fourth.  And  it  is  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforesaid  that  no 
goods  or  commodities  that  are  of  foreign  growth,  production,  or  manufacture, 
and  which  are  to  be  brought  into  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  the  islands  of  Guern- 
sey and  Jersey,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  in  English-built  shipping  or 
other  shipping  belonging  to  some  of  the  aforesaid  places  and  navigated  by  Eng- 
lish mariners,  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  shipped  or  brought  from  any  other  place  or 
places,  country  or  countries,  but  only  from  those  of  their  said  growth,  produc- 
tion, or  manufacture,  or  from  those  ports  where  the  said  goods  and  commodities 
can  only,  or  are,  or  usually  have  been  first  shipped  for  transportation  and  from 
none  other  places  or  countries,  under  the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture  of  all  such  of 
the  aforesaid  goods  as  shall  be  imported  from  any  other  place  or  country  con- 
trary to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof,  as  also  of  the  ship  in  which  chey 
were  imported,  etc. 

Section  eighteenth.  And  it  is  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforesaid  that 
from  and  after  the  first  day  of  April,  which  shall  be  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1661,  no  sugars,  tobacco,  cotton,  wool,  indigoes,  ginger,  fustick,  or  other  dye- 
ing wood  of  the  growth,  production,  or  manufacture  of  an  English  plantation 
in  America,  Asia,  or  Africa,  shall  be  shipped,  carried,  conveyed,  or  transported 


3l6  APPENDIX, 

from  any  of  the  said  English  plantations  to  any  land,  island,  territory,  domin- 
ion, port,  or  place  whatsoever  other  than  to  such  English  plantations  as  do  belong 
to  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  or  to  the  kingdom  of  England  or  Ire- 
land or  principality  of  Wales,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  there  to  be 
laid  on  shore  under  the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture  of  the  said  goods  or  the  full 
value  thereof,  as  also  of  the  ship,  with  all  her  guns,  etc. 

Section  nineteenth.  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid, 
that  for  every  ship  or  vessel  which,  from  and  after  the  25th  day  of  December, 
1660,  shall  set  sail  out  of  or  from  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  or  town  of  Berwick- 
upon-Tweed  for  any  English  plantations  in  America,  Asia,  or  Africa,  sufficient 
bond  shall  be  given,  with  one  surety,  to  the  chief  officer  of  the  custom-house 
of  such  port  or  place  from  whence  the  said  ship  shall  set  sail,  to  the  value  of  one 
thousand  pounds,  if  the  ship  be  of  less  burthen  than  one  hundred  tons,  and  of 
the  sum  of  two  thousand  pounds  if  the  ship  shall  be  of  greater  burthen.  That 
in  case  the  said  ship  or  vessel  shall  load  any  of  the  said  commodities  at  any  of 
the  said  English  plantations,  that  the  same  commodities  shall  be  by  the  said  ship 
brought  to  some  port  of  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  or  to  the  port  or  town  of 
Berwick-upon-Tweed,  and  shall  there  unload  and  put  on  shore  the  same,  the 
danger  of  the  seas  only  excepted.  And  for  all  ships  coming  from  any  other 
port  or  place  to  any  of  the  aforesaid  plantations  who  by  this  act  are  permitted 
to  trade  there,  that  the  governor  of  such  English  plantation  shall,  before  the  said 
ship  or  vessel  be  permitted  to  load  on  board  any  of  the  said  commodities,  take 
bond  in  manner  and  to  the  value  aforesaid  for  each  respective  ship  or  vessel 
that  such  ship  or  vessel  shall  carry  all  the  aforesaid  goods  that  shall  be  laden  on 
board  in  the  said  ship  to  some  other  of  his  Majesty's  English  plantations,  or  to 
England,  Ireland,  Wales,  or  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed.  And  that  every 
ship  or  vessel  that  shall  load  or  take  on  board  any  of  the  aforesaid  goods,  until 
such  bond  given  to  the  said  governor,  or  certificate  produced  from  the  officers  of 
any  custom-house  of  England,  Ireland,  Wales,  or  of  the  town  of  Berwick,  that 
such  bond  have  been  there  duly  given,  shall  be  forfeited,  with  all  her  guns,  etc. 
*  *  *  And  the  said  governors  and  every  of  them  shall  twice  in  every  year, 
return  true  copies  of  all  such  bonds  by  him  so  taken  to  the  chief  officers  of  the 
customs  in  London. 

Kot.  Pari.,  12  C.  II. ,J>.  2,  nu.  6.  5  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  246. 

STATUTE  15,  CAR.  II.,  C.  7 — A.D.   1 663. 

"  An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  trade." 

Section  fifth.  "  And  in  regard  his  Majesty's  plantations  beyond  the  seas  are 
inhabited  and  peopled  by  his  subjects  of  this  his  kingdom  of  England,  for  the 
maintaining  a  greater  correspondence  and  kindness  between  them,  and  keeping 
them  in  a  firmer  dependence  upon  it,  and  rendering  them  yet  more  beneficial  and 
advantageous  unto  it,  in  the  further  employment  and  increase  of  English  shipping 
and  seamen,  vent  of  English  wool;n  and  other  manufactures  and  commodities, 
rendering  the  navigation  to  and  from  the  same  more  cheap  and  safe,  and  making 
this  kingdom  a  staple,  not  only  of  the  commodities  of  those  plantations,  but 


APPENDIX.  317 

also  of  the  commodities  of  other  countries  and  places,  for  the  supplying  of 
them  ;  and  it  being  the  usage  of  other  nations  to  keep  their  plantations'  trades 
to  themselves." 

Section  sixth.  "  Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  that  no  commodity  of  the  growth,  produc- 
tion, or  manufacture  of  Europe,  shall  be  imported  into  any  land,  island,  planta- 
tion, colony,  territory,  or  place,  to  his  Majesty  belonging,  or  which  shall  hereafter 
belong  unto  or  be  in  possession  of  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  in  Asia, 
Africa,  or  America  (Tangiers  only  excepted),  but  which  shall  be  bond  Jide,  and 
without  fraud,  laden  and  shipped  in  England,  Wales,  or  the  town  of  Berwick- 
upon-Tweed,  and  in  English-built  shipping,  and  which  were  bond  fide  how^K. 
before  the  1st  of  October,  1662,  and  had  such  certificate  thereof  as  is  directed 
in  one  act,  passed  the  last  session  of  the  present  Parliament,  entitled,  '  An  act 
for  preventing  frauds  and  regulating  abuses  in  his  Majesty's  customs ';  and 
whereof  the  master  and  three  fourths  of  the  mariners,  at  least,  are  English, 
and  which  shall  be  carried  directly  thence  to  the  said  lands,  islands,  plantations, 
colonies,  territories,  or  places,  and  from  no  other  place  or  places  whatsoever  ; 
any  law,  statute,  or  usage  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding ;  under  the  penalty 
of  the  loss  of  all  such  commodities  of  the  growth,  production,  or  manufacture 
of  Europe,  as  shall  be  imported  into  any  of  them,  from  any  other  place  what- 
soever, by  land  or  water  ;  and  if  by  water,  of  the  ship  or  vessel,  also,  in  which 
they  were  imported,  with  all  her  guns,  tackle,  furniture,  ammunition,  and  ap- 
parel ;  one  third  part  to  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors  ;  one  third  part 
to  the  governor  of  such  land,  island,  plantation,  colony,  territory,  or  place  into 
which  such  goods  were  imported,  if  the  said  ship,  vessel,  or  goods,  be  there 
seized,  or  informed  against  and  sued  for  ;  or,  otherwise,  that  third  part,  also,  to 
his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors  ;  and  the  other  third  part  to  him  or  them 
who  shall  seize,  inform,  or  sue  for  the  same  in  any  of  his  Majesty's  courts  in 
such  of  the  said  lands,  islands,  colonies,  plantations,  territories,  or  places  where 
the  offence  was  committed,  or  in  any  court  of  record  in  England,  by  bill,  infor- 
mation, plaint,  or  other  action,  wherein  no  essoin,  protection,  or  wager  of  law 
shall  be  allowed." 

The  other  sections  prescribe  the  oaths  and  penalties. 

STAT.    25    CAR.    II.,    C.    7. — A.D.    l6^2. 

**  An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  Greenland  and  Eastlard  Trades,  and 
for  the  better  securing  of  the  Plantation  Trade." 

The  first  four  sections  relate  solely  to  the  fisheries — to  train  oil,  blubber, 
whale-fins,  and  the  like. 

Section  fifth.  And  whereas,  by  one  Act  passed  in  this  present  Parliament,  in 
the  twelfth  year  of  your  Majesty's  reign,  entitled,  An  Act  for  Encouragement  of 
Shipping  and  Navigation,  and  by  several  other  laws  passed  since  that  time,  it 
is  permitted  to  ship,  carry,  convey,  and  transport  sugar,  tobacco,  cotton,  wool, 
indigo,  ginger,  fustick,  and  all  other  dyeing  wood,  or  the  growth,  production, 
and  manufacture  of  your  Majesty's  plantations  in  America,  Asia,  or  Africa  from 
the  places  of  their  growth,  production,  and  manufacture,  to  any  other  of  your 


3l8  APPENDIX. 

Majesty's  plantations  in  those  parts  (Tangiers  only  excepted),  and  that  without 
paying  of  customs  for  the  same,  either  at  the  loading  or  unloading  of  the  said 
commodities,  by  means  whereof  the  trade  and  navigation  in  those  commodities 
from  one  plantation  to  another  is  greatly  increased,  and  the  inhabitants  of  di- 
verse of  those  colonies,  not  contenting  themselves  with  being  supplied  with 
those  commodities  for  their  own  use,  free  from  all  customs  (while  the  subjects 
of  ihis  your  kingdom  of  England  have  paid  great  customs  and  impositions  for 
what  of  them  have  been  sent  here),  but  contrary  to  the  express  letter  of  the 
aforesaid  laws  have  brought  into  diverse  parts  of  Europe  great  quantities 
thereof,  and  also  daily  vend  great  quantities  thereof  to  the  shipping  of  other 
nations,  who  bring  them  into  diverse  parts  of  Europe,  to  the  great  hurt  and 
diminution  of  your  Majesty's  customs  and  of  the  trade  and  navigation  of  this  your 
kingdom  :  For  the  prevention  thereof  we  your  Majesty's  Commons,  in  Parlia- 
ment assembled,  do  pray  that  it  may  be  enacted,  and  be  it  enacted  by  the  King's 
most  excellent  Majesty,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Lords  Spirit- 
ual and  Temporal  and  Commons  in  this  present  Parliament  assembled,  and  by 
authority  of  the  same,  that  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  September,  1673,  if 
any  ship  or  vessel  which  by  law  may  trade  in  any  of  your  Majesty's  plantations 
shall  come  to  any  of  them  to  ship  and  take  on  board  any  of  the  aforesaid  com- 
modities, and  that  bond  shall  not  be  first  given  with  one  sufficient  surety  to 
bring  the  same  to  England  or  Wales,  or  the  town  of  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  and 
to  no  other  place,  and  there  to  unload  and  put  the  same  on  shore  (the  danger  of 
the  sea  only  excepted),  that  there  shall  be  answered  and  paid  to  your  Majesty, 
your  heirs  and  successors,  for  so  much  of  the  said  commodities  as  shall  be  loaded 
and  put  on  board  such  ship  or  vessel,  these  following  rates  and  duties,  that  is  to 
say,  etc. 

Section  sixth.  Duty  to  be  levied  by  Commissioners  of  the  Customs  in  Eng- 
land. 

Section  seventh.  If  party  have  not  ready  money,  Commissioners  may  take  a 
proportion  of  the  commodities. 

Sectiotts  eighth  and  ninth.   Relate  to  Eastland  trade. 

Pot.  Pari.  25  Car.  II.,  nu.  7  5  Statutes  of  the  Realm  ^  jg^. 


APPENDIX  F. 

STAT.   13  AND  14  CAR.  II.,  CH.   IITH. 

"An  Act  to  prevent  frauds,  and  regulating  abuses  in  his  Majesty's  cus- 
toms." 

Section  fifth.  "  And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  in 
case,  after  the  clearing  of  any  ship  or  vessel,  by  the  person  or  persons  which  are 
or  shall  be  appointed  by  his  Majesty  for  managing  the  customs,  or  any  their 
deputies,  and  discharging  the  watchmen  and  tidesmen  from  attendance  there- 
upon, there  shall  be  found  on  board  such  ship  or  vessel,  any  goods,  wares,  or 


APPENDIX.  319 

merchandises,  which  have  been  concealed  from  the  knowledge  of  the  said  per- 
son or  persons,  which  are  or  shall  be  so  appointed  to  manage  the  customs,  and 
for  which  the  custom,  subsidy,  and  other  duties  upon  the  importation  thereof 
have  not  been  paid  ;  then  the  master,  purser,  or  other  person  taking  charge  of 
said  ship  or  vessel,  shall  forfeit  the  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds  ;  and  it  shall 
be  lawful  to  or  for  any  person  or  persons  authorized  by  writ  of  assistance  under 
the  seal  of  his  Majesty's  court  of  exchequer^  to  take  a  constable,  headborough, 
or  other  public  officer,  inhabiting  near  unto  the  place,  and  in  the  daytime  to 
enter  and  go  into  any  house,  shop,  cellar,  warehouse,  or  room,  or  other  place ; 
and  in  case  of  resistance,  to  break  open  doors,  chests,  trunks,  and  other  pack- 
ages, there  to  seize,  and  from  thence  to  bring  any  kind  of  goods  or  merchandise 
whatsoever,  prohibited  and  uncustomed,  and  to  put  and  secure  the  same  in  his 
Majesty's  storehouse  in  the  port  next  to  the  place  where  such  seizures  shall  be 
made." 

"  Here,"  says  John  Adams,  "is  all  the  color  for  writs  of  assistance,  which 
the  officers  of  the  crown,  aided  by  the  researches  of  their  learned  counsel,  Mr. 
Gridley,  could  produce."     "  Life  and  Works,"  x,  323. 

In  the  attempt  to  support  the  petition  to  the  colonial  court  for  writs  of  as- 
sistance, the  crown  officers  presented,  among  others,  acts,  whose  contents  were, 
on  examination,  discovered  to  be  as  incongruous  as  their  titles  ;  a  few  of  which 
are  here  given  : — "An  act  for  regulating  the  trade  of  Bay-making  in  the  Dutch 
Bay-hall  in  Colchester."  "  An  act  for  the  regulating  the  making  of  Kidder- 
minster stuffs."  "  An  act  for  granting  to  his  Majesty  an  imposition  upon  all  wines 
and  vinegar,  "etc.  "  An  act  for  granting  to  his  Majesty  an  imposition  upon  all 
tobacco  and  sugar  imported,"  and  finally,  "  An  act  for  prohibiting  the  impor- 
tation of  foreign  bone-lace,  cutwork,  embroidery,  fringe,  band-strings,  buttons, 
and  needlework."  In  times  when  titles  were  given  to  acts  of  Parliament  to 
conceal,  not  reveal  the  contents,  it  certainly  behoved  a  faithful  attorney  for  the 
crown  to  be  blind  to  the  ridiculousness  of  what  really  were,  no  doubt,  useful 
subjects,  and  offer  all  he  could,  be  it  ridiculous  or  not.  But,  when,  as  it  turned 
out,  these  acts,  at  least  for  the  most  part,  did  not  extend  to  America,  were  not 
made  for  the  colonies  there,  and  had  no  more  application  to  Massachusetts  than 
to  Soudan,  these  offers  and  persistence  of  the  crown  become  in  the  highest  de- 
gree reprehensible. 

STAT.  7  AND  8,  W.  III.,  C.  22. 

"An  Act  for  preventing  frauds,  and  regulating  abuses  in  the  plantation 
trade." 

"Whereas,  notwithstanding  divers  acts  made  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
navigation  of  this  kingdom,  and  for  the  better  securing  and  regulating  the  plan- 
tation trade,  more  especially  one  act  of  Parliament  made  in  the  1 2th  year  of 
the  reign  of  the  late  King  Charles  II.,  instituted  an  act  for  the  increasing  of 
shipping  and  navigation  ;  another  act,  made  in  the  15th  year  of  the  reign  of 
his  said  late  Majesty,  instituted  an  act  for  the  encouragement  of  trade  ;  another 
act  made  in  the  22d  and  23d  years  of  his  said  late  Majesty's  reign,  instituted  an 
act  to  prevent  the  planting  of  tobacco  in  England,  and  for  regulation  of  the 


320  APPENDIX. 

plantation  trade  ;  another  act,  made  in  the  25th  year  of  the  reign  of  his  said  late 
Majesty,  instituted  an  act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  Greenland  and  East- 
land fisheries,  and  for  the  better  securing  the  plantation  trade,  great  abuses  are 
daily  committed  to  the  prejudice  of  the  English  navigation  and  the  loss  of  a 
great  part  of  the  plantation  trade  to  this  kingdom  by  the  artifice  and  cunning 
of  ill-disposed  persons,  for  remedy  whereof  for  the  future,"  etc.     *     *     * 

Section  sixth.  "And  for  the  more  effectual  preventing  of  frauds  and  regulating 
abuses  in  the  plantation  trade  in  America,  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority 
aforesaid,  that  all  ships  coming  into,  or  going  out  of  any  of  the  said  plantations, 
and  lading  or  unlading  any  goods  or  commodities,  whether  the  same  be  his 
Majesty's  ships  of  war  or  merchant  ships,  and  the  masters  and  commanders 
thereof,  and  their  ladings,  shall  be  subject  and  liable  to  the  same  rules,  visita- 
tions, searches,  penalties,  and  forfeitures,  as  to  the  entering,  landing,  and  dis- 
charging their  respective  ships  and  ladings,  as  ships  and  their  ladings,  and  the 
commanders  and  masters  of  ships,  are  subject  and  liable  unto  in  this  kingdom, 
by  virtue  of  an  act  of  Parliament  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of 
King  Charles  II.,  instituted  an  act  for  preventing  frauds  and  regulating  abuses 
in  his  Majesty's  customs.  And  that  the  officers  for  collecting  and  managing 
his  Majesty's  revenue,  and  inspecting  the  plantation  trade,  and  in  any  of  the 
said  plantations,  shall  have  the  same  powers  and  authorities  for  visiting  and 
searching  of  ships,  and  taking  their  entries,  and  for  seizing  and  securing,  or 
bringing  on  shore  any  of  the  goods  prohibited  to  be  imported  or  exported  into 
or  out  of  any  the  said  plantations,  or  for  which  any  duties  are  payable,  or  ought 
to  have  been  paid,  by  any  of  the  before  mentioned  acts,  as  are  provided  for  the 
officers  of  the  customs  in  England  by  the  said  last  mentioned  act,  made  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.;  and  also  to  enter  houses  or 
warehouses,  to  search  for  and  seize  any  such  goods  ;  and  that  all  the  wharfingers 
and  owners  of  keys  and  wharves,  or  any  lightermen,  barg'^men,  watermen, 
porters,  or  other  persons  assisting  in  the  conveyance,  concealment,  or  rescue 
of  any  of  the  said  goods,  or  in  the  hindering  or  resistance  of  any  of  the  said 
officers  in  the  performance  of  their  duty,  and  the  boats,  barges,  lighters,  or  other 
vessels  employed  in  the  conveyance  of  such  goods,  shall  be  subject  to  the  like 
pains  and  penalties,  as  are  provided  by  the  same  act  made  in  the  fourteenth 
year  of  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  in  relation  to  prohibited  or  unaccustomed 
goods  in  this  kingdom  ;  and  that  the  like  assistance  shall  be  given  to  the  said 
officers  in  the  execution  of  their  office,  as  by  the  said  last  mentioned  act  is  pro- 
vided for  the  officers  in  England  ;  and,  also,  that  the  said  ofificers  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  the  same  penalties  and  forfeitures,  for  any  corruptions,  frauds,  conni- 
vances, or  concealments,  in  violation  of  any  the  before  mentioned  laws,  as  any 
officers  of  the  customs  in  England  are  liable  to,  by  virtue  of  the  last  mentioned 
act ;  and,  also,  that  in  case  any  officer  or  ofificers  in  the  plantations  shall  be 
seized  or  molested  for  anything  done  in  the  execution  of  their  office,  the  said 
officer  shall  and  may  plead  the  general  issue,  and  shall  give  this  or  other  cus- 
tom-acts in  evidence,  and  the  judge  to  allow  thereof,  have  and  enjoy  the  like 
privileges  and  advantages  as  are  allowed  by  law  to  the  officers  of  his  Majesty's 
customs  in  England." 


APPENDIX.  321 

STAT.    6,    GEOR.    II.,    CHAP.    13. 

**An  act  for  the  better  securing  and  encouraging  the  trade  of  his  Majesty's 
sugar  colonies  in  America. 

Section  first.  "Whereas,  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  your  Majesty's  sugar 
colonies  in  America  are  of  the  greatest  consequence  and  importance  to  the  trade, 
navigation,  and  strength  of  this  kingdom  ;  and  whereas,  the  planters  of  the  said 
sugar  colonies  have  of  late  years  fallen  under  such  great  discouragements,  that 
they  are  unable  to  improve  or  carry  on  the  sugar  trade  upon  an  equal  footing 
vith  the  foreign  sugar  colonies,  without  some  advantage  and  relief  be  given  to 
them  from  Great  Britain  ;  for  remedy  whereof,  and  for  the  good  and  welfare  of 
your  Majesty's  subjects,  we,  your  Majesty's  most  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects,  the 
commons  of  Great  Britain,  assembled  in  Parliament,  have  given  and  p-rantqd 
unto  your  Majesty  the  several  and  respective  rates  and  duties  hereinafter  men- 
tioned, and  in  such  manner  and  form  as  is  hereinafter  expressed  ;  and  do  most 
humbly  beseech  your  Majesty  that  it  may  be  enacted,  and  be  it  enacted  by  the 
king's  most  excellent  Majesty,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  lords,  spiritual 
and  temporal,  and  commons,  in  the  present  Parliament  assembled,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  same,  that  from  and  after  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  December,  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-three,  there  shall  be  raised,  levied,  collected 
and  paid  unto,  and  for  the  use  of  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  upon 
all  rum  or  spirits  of  the  produce  or  manufacture  of  any  of  ihe  colonies  or  plan- 
tations in  America,  not  in  the  possession  or  under  the  dominion  of  his  Majesty, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  which  at  any  time  or  times,  within  or  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  this  act,  shall  be  imported  or  brought  into  any  of  the  colonies  or 
plantations  in  America,  which  now  are,  or  hereafter  may  be,  in  the  possession 
or  under  the  dominion  of  his  Majesty,  his  heirs  or  successors,  the  sum  of  nine- 
pence,  money  of  Great  Britain,  to  be  paid  according  to  the  proportion  and  value 
of  five  shillings  and  sixpence  the  ounce  in  silver,  for  every  gallon  thereof,  and 
after  that  rate  for  any  greater  or  lesser  quantity  ;  and  upon  all  molasses  or 
syrups  of  such  foreign  produce  or  manufacture,  as  aforesaid,  which  shall  be  im- 
ported or  brought  into  any  of  the  said  colonies  of  or  belonging  to  his  Majesty, 
the  sum  of  sixpence  of  like  money  for  every  gallon  thereof,  and  after  that  rate 
for  any  greater  or  lesser  quantity  ;  and  upon  all  sugars  and  paneles  of  such  for- 
eign growth,  produce,  or  manufacture,  as  aforesaid,  which  shall  be  imported 
into  any  of  the  said  colonies  or  plantations  of,  or  belonging  to  his  majesty,  a 
duty  after  the  rate  of  five  shillings  of  like  money  for  every  hundred  weight  avoir- 
dupois of  the  said  sugar  and  paneles,  and  after  that  rate  for  a  greater  or  lesser 
quantity." 

Section  second.  Enacts  simply  that  all  duties  imposed  by  the  first  section 
shall  be  paid  down  by  the  importer  before  landing. 

Section  third.  "And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  in  case  any  of  the  said  com- 
modities shall  be  landed,  or  put  on  shore  in  any  of  his  Majesty's  said  colonies  or 
plantations  in  America,  out  of  any  ship  or  vessel  before  due  entry  be  made  thereof, 
at  the  port  or  place  where  the  same  shall  be  imported,  and  before  the  duties  by 
this  act  charged  or  chargeable  thereupon  shall  be  duly  paid,  or  without  a  war- 


322  APFENDIX. 

rant  for  the  landing  and  delivering  the  same,  first  signed  by  the  collector  or  im- 
post officer,  or  other  proper  officer  or  officers  of  the  custom  or  excise,  belonging 
to  such  port  or  place  respectively,  all  such  goods  as  shall  be  so  landed  or  put  on 
shore,  or  the  value  of  the  same  shall  be  forfeited  ;  and  all  and  every  such  goods 
as  shall  be  so  landed  or  put  on  shore,  contrary  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning 
of  this  act,  shall,  and  may  be  seized  by  the  governor  or  commander-in-chief,  for 
the  time  being,  of  the  colonies  or  plantations  where  the  same  shall  be  so  landed 
or  put  on  shore,  or  any  person  or  persons  by  them  authorized  in  that  behalf,  or 
by  warrant  of  any  justice  of  the  peace  or  other  magistrate  (which  warrant  such 
justice  or  magistrate  is  hereby  empowered  and  required  to  give  upon  request), 
or  by  any  custom-house  officer,  impost,  or  excise  officer,  or  any  person  or  per- 
sons him  or  them  accompanying,  aiding,  and  assisting  ;  and  all  and  every  such 
offence  and  forfeiture,  shall,  and  may  be  prosecuted  for  and  recovered  in  any 
court  of  admiralty  in  his  majesty's  colonies  or  plantations  in  America  (which 
court  of  admiralty  is  hereby  authorized,  empowered,  and  required  to  proceed  to 
hear,  and  finally  determine  the  same),  or  in  any  court  of  record  in  the  said  colo- 
nies or  plantations  where  such  offence  is  committed,  at  the  election  of  the  in- 
former or  proseccvitor,  according  to  the  course  and  method  used  and  practised 
there  in  prosecution  for  offences  against  penal  laws  relating  to  customs  or  ex- 
cise ;  and  such  penalties  and  forfeitures  so  recovered  there  shall  be  divided  as 
follows,"  etc.,  etc. 

The  remaining  sections  have  reference  only  to  the  penalties,  onus  prvbandi, 
and  charge  of  prosecution. 


APPENDIX  G. 


PREAMBLE    TO    THE    STAMP    ACT. 


•An  Act  for  granting  and  applying  certain  Stamp  Duties,  and  other  Duties, 
in  the  British  Colonies  and  Plantations  in  America,  toward  further  defraying 
the  Expenses  of  defending,  protecting,  and  securing  the  same  ;  and  for  amend- 
ing such  Parts  of  the  several  Acts  of  Parliament  relating  to  the  Trade  and 
Revenues  of  the  said  Colonies  and  Plantations,  as  direct  the  Manner  of  deter- 
mining and  recovering  the  penalties  and  forfeitures  therein  mentioned." 

[The  great  length  of  the  act,  which  covers  thirty-nine  pages  of  large  i2mo, 
precludes  the  possibility  of  its  repetition  here.] 


INDEX 


Abercrombie's  campaign,  52  n.  .  311 
Absolutism,  of  the  Restoration, 
feeble,  8  ;  Anglican,  overthrow 
of,  7,  300 ;  conflict  with,  247, 
etseq. ;  conflict  with,  transferred 
from  the  closet  lo  the  field,  297, 
29S;  acting  through  Parliament, 

299,  300 
Acrelius,  Israel    .         .  161  n. 

Act  of  35  Henry  VIII.  .  .  264 
Act  of  Navigation,  142,  Appendix 
E,  312,  313,  314;  1S6  et  seq.\ 
effect  of,  on  commerce,  1S9  ; 
origin  of,  igo,  191  ;  effect  of, 
on  colonies,  191,  192  ;  upon 
Protestantism,  192,  193  ;  upon 
monopoly,  193  ;  John  Adams' 
view  of,  195  n.;  reenacted,  191, 
196  ;  changed  relations  of  colo- 
nies to  England,  214,  216,222; 
corner-stone  of  colonial  policy, 
221  ;  interpretation  of ,  by  gov- 
ernment, 239 ;  reenacted  by 
Massachusetts,  239 ;  prohibi- 
tory in  nature,  239,  240.  See  tit. 
"  Restrictive  system  ";  "Child  "; 
"Gee";  "Ashley";  "Otis."  . 
Acts  of  Trade,  multiplication  of, 
under  William  III.,  15;  colo- 
nial indebtedness  when  attrib- 
uted to,  141,  142  ;  design  of, 
/86,  187  ;  legislation  of.  The 
Three  Acts,  195  eiseq.,  312,  313, 
314,  315,  316;  treatises  upon, 
205  et  scq,\  motive  of  '>'>i  ;  in- 
terpretaiion  of,  by  government, 
237,  239 ;  comments  of  Otis 
upon,  240.  242,  243.  See  ap- 
pendices E  and  F,  and  tit.  "  Re- 
strictive system";  "Ashley"; 
"Otis."  .         .        .        «         . 


Acts  for  revenue.  See  tit.  "  Rev- 
enue. " 

Adams,  Abigail,  letters  of    .       180  n. 

Adams,  John,  notion  of  Revolu- 
tion, 24  n. ;  on  governors*  com- 
missions, 39  n. ;  impression  of 
Pennsylvania  Dutch,  163  n.; 
his  Five  advantages  of  New 
England,  164  et  seq.\  his  en- 
counter with  Pemberton,  166  n., 
189  n.,  190  n.;  his  views  of 
Acts  of  Navigation  and  Trade 
in  relation  to  Am.  Revolution, 
195  n. ;  on  commercial  litera- 
ture, 219  n. ;  on  grants  in  char- 
ters, 220  n. ;  reports  Otis'  argu- 
ment, 244  ;  his  opinion  of  it, 
245  n. ;  speaks  in  favor  of  inde- 
pendence, 297  ;  true  description 
of  colonial  desire  for  indepen- 
dence      .         .         .         .         .311 

Adams,  Samuel,  moves  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  .  271 

Allen,  William,  opposes  Gren- 
ville's  policy     .         .         .       254  n. 

America,  Discovery  of,  effects  of, 
upon  commerce        .         .         .   187 

American  colonists,  character  of 

21,  22,  23 

American  Whig, The,  prediction  of  312 

Annapolis,  life  at    .         .  139,  140 

Anne,  Queen,  jiolicy  of,  favorable 
to  colonies,  16  ;  purity  of  lan- 
guage previous  to  reign  of,  130  ; 
foreign  travel  in  South  increased 
during  reign  of    .         .         130,  131 

Ashley,  John,  his  book,  219;  advo- 
cates colonies  as  sources  of  rev- 
enue, disdains  the  charters,  219  ; 
on  the  regulation  of  colonial 
trade,  the  Molasses    Act    234,  235 


323 


324 


INDEX. 


Assets,  land  as    .         .         .         .183 

Baltimore,  Lord,  see  tit.  "Calvert, 
George." 

Barbadoes,  The,  Child's  descrip- 
tion of  settlers  in      .         .         .  208 

Barclay,  Robert,  notion  of  the 
Scriptures         .         .         .         64  n. 

Barre,  Colonel     ....  255 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  convenes 
the  legislature  of  Virginia         .     42 

Bernard,  Governor,  his  letter  to 
Lord  Barrington,  263  ;  knight- 
ed    264 

Bill  or  Declaration  of  Rights,  12  ; 
colonial  liberty  destitute  of,  14  ; 
passed  by  First  Congress  .   283 

Black,  William,  his  Journal,  158^/  seq. 

Blackstone,  Sir  William,  on  com- 
mon law  in  colonies  .         40  n. 

Board  of  Lords  of  Trade  and 
Plantations,  established  by 
Chas.  IL,  revived  by  William 
IIL,  15  ;  Appendix  B  ;  Evelyn, 
member  of,  309,  310;  extracts 
from  report  of,  308,  Appendix 
D  ;   ultimate  object  of  15,  16,  221 

Boston,  see  tit.  "  Massachusetts," 
"Stamp  Act,"  "Port  Bill," 
"Regulating  Act,"  etc. 

Boston  Port  Bill,  276  ;  how  re- 
ceived in  America    .         .         .   279 

Botetourt,  Lord,  character  of ,  ap- 
pointed governor  of  Vii'ginia, 
265  ;  dissolves  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, 266  ;  his  appointment  a 
conciliatory  act,  265,  267  ;  the 
Virginians  erect  a  statue  to  him  265 

Braddock's  defeat  52  n.,  311 

Bristol,  sympathy  of,  with  colo- 
nies, 18  ;  controls,  with  London, 
colonial  trade,  57  ;  Burke  elect- 
ed member  from       .         .         .  284 

Brownists,  The,  denied  right  of 
state  to  impose  religion,  60 ; 
called  Separatists,  61,  go  ;  did 
not  disapprove  of  expulsion  of 
Roger  Williams,  61  ;  settled  at 
Plymouth,  Mass.,  6r,  84  ;  the 
Pilgrims  were,  84,  90  ;  asserted 
autonomy  in  Mayflower  com- 
pact, 86  ;  their  autonomy  a 
theocratic  oligarchy,  86,  87  ; 
motive  of  their  emigration         .     92 

Bunker  Hill,  fight  of  .         .         .   290 

Burke,  Edmund,  his  six  sources 
of  freedom  in  the  colonies,  29 
€t,seq.\  on  material  progress  of 
colonies,    203   n.;    on   colonial 


imports,  211  n.;  on  Port  Duty 
Act,  253  n.;  resists  Boston  Port 
Bill,  276  ;  summary  view  of 
rights  of  America,  28  r  ;  elected 
from  Bristol,  284 ;  introduces 
resolutions  for  conciliation        .  288 

Burnaby,  his  opinion  of  Rhode 
Island  government,  45  n.;  on 
the  political  and  commercial 
character  of  the  Virginians, 
134  n. ;  on  the  Pennsylvanians 

163  n. 

Calvert,  George,  origin  and  char- 
acter of,  118,  119;  becomes  a 
Romanist  and  turns  his  atten- 
tion to  America,  118,  119,  121 ; 
founds  Maryland,  procures  a 
charter  with  remarkable  grants, 
121,  122  ;  his  relations  to  free- 
dom of  conscience,  death  .    123 

Cambden,  Lord,  supports  Chat- 
ham .....   285 

Canada,  French  occupation  of, 
49,  50,  51,  52  ;  effect  of  de- 
struction of  French  power  in, 
185,    186,    the    Quebec    Act, 

277,  278,  2S0 

Carolinas,  North  and  South,  Pro- 
prietary, afterward  Royal  Gov- 
ernments, 36,  45  ;  self-govern- 
ment in,  vanity  of  Locke's  con- 
stitution .         .         .         .45 

Caucus,  The        .         .         .        176  n. 

Charles  I.,  6,  8  ;  attempts  mo- 
nopoly of  tobacco,  47,  48  ;  Vir- 
ginia acquires  representative 
government  under  .         .     48 

Charles     II.,      assents      to     the 
Habeas   Corpus   Act,    12  ;    re- 
enactment   of   Navigation   Act 
under,  191,  196;  unmasked  by^ 
Otis        ....     243,  299 

Charters,  The,  Dr.  Robertson's 
remark  concerning,  commented 
upon,  37,  38  ;  construed  as 
compacts,  38,  220,  and  n.  ; 
favorable  to  liberty,  38,  39 ; 
of  Virginia,  41  ;  of  Maryland, 
43,  121,  122 ;  of  Massachu- 
setts, 43,  44  ;  of  Connecticut, 
44  ;  of  Rhode  Island,  44,  69 ; 
difference  between,  121  ;  grants 
and  exemptions  in  .    210  n  ,  220  n 

Chatham,  Lord,  on  colonial 
trade,  213  n.  ;  on  Stamp  Act, 
217  n.  ;  on  Restriction,  221  ; 
on  Declaratory  Act,  227  ;  en- 
thusiastic  support  of,  by  colo- 


INDEX. 


325 


nists,  251  n.  ;  urges  repeal  of 
Stamp  Act,  257  ;  enters  House 
•  of  Lords,  259  ;  deplorable  ab- 
sence of,  262,  264;  opinion  of 
the  First  Congress,  283,  284  ; 
bill  for  settlement  of  troubles, 
takes  counsel  of  Franklin  .  285 

Chesapeake  Bay,  effect  of,  upon 
Virginia  and  Maryland      125  et  seq. 

Chester,  The  Great  Law  of,  76  et 
seq. ;  Appendix  B. 

Child,  Sir  Josiah,  206  ;  his  treat- 
ise, 207  et  seq.  ;  his  postulates, 
210,  211  ;  analysis  of  his  argu- 
ment, 212  ;  his  disregard  of  the 
charters,  2ir,  213;  unfriendly 
to  the  colonies,  213,  214;  is 
knighted,  215  ;  merit  and  mis- 
chief of  his  book,  215  ;  Otis' 
comments  upon         .  .  .   242 

Choiseul,  his  significant  exclama- 
tion .....   310 

Church  of  England,  establish- 
ment of,  not  burdensome  to  the 
colonies,  14;  mild  intolerance  of     62 

Church  of  Rome,  Anglican  and 
Puritan  horror  of,  89,  90  ;  dis- 
abilities of  Roman  Catholics  in 
England,  119.  120,  and  n. 

Cigars,  late  introduction  of         132  n. 

Circular  Letter,  The  .  .   263 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  assists  Roger 
Williams,  107 ;  his  decision 
against  monopoly      .         .       198  n. 

Colleges,  colonial         .         .    171,  172 

Colonies  (and  Colonists),  The 
English,  in  America,  motive  of, 
5  ;  results  of  expansive  move- 
ment following  the  Reforma- 
tion, 5  ;  effects  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  16S8  upon,  13  ;  in  what 
Rev,  of  168S  did  not  affect 
them,  13  ;  how  they  early  ac- 
quired liberties,  13,  14  ;  liberty 
of,  destitute  of  constitutional 
guaranties,  14 ;  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  did  not  extend  to 
them,  14  ;  two  conditions  in, 
favorable  to  liberty,  14  ;  how 
the  Rev.  of  1688  injured  them, 
15  ;  American  liberty  favored 
by  French  occupation,  not 
favored  by  William  IH., 
Board  of  Lords  of  Trade  and 
Plantations  established  for,  15  ; 
prosperity  of,  under  Queen 
Anne,  16  ;  absolutism  under 
George    III.,   begins  with    as- 


sault upon,  16,  17  ;  absolutism 
aided  by  disdain  of  provincials, 
17,  18  ;  popular  sentiment  in 
England  adverse  to,  18  ;  nega- 
tive character  of  history  of, 
previous  to  Am.  Revolution, 
20  et  seq.  ;  why  they  took  up 
arms,  21  ;  their  happy  lot,  2r, 
204,  205  ;  unsuspected  advan- 
tages possessed  by,  22  ;  famili- 
arity with  science  of  govern- 
ment, 23  ;  English  nature  of, 
24 ;  successive  eras  of  their 
development,  25  ;  Roman.  31, 
32 ;  Grecian,  33,  34 ;  three 
kinds  of  American,  35,  36  ;  in- 
stitutional nature  of,  48,  49, 
50;  French,  33,  49,  50,  51, 
52;  self-government  in,  43, 
44,  54,  55.  56.  58.  217  n.  ;  ab- 
senceof  centralization,  political 
or  social,  in  Southern,  133 ; 
feeders  to  British  trade  and 
manufacture,  195,  199,  216,  et 
seq.  ;  as  sources  of  revenue, 
216 ;  not  attached  to  any 
realm,  217  ;  their  support  of 
English  foreign  policy,  their 
money  accounts  with  England, 
249,  250,  251,  and  n.,  252 ; 
remonstrate  against  being  made 
sources  of  revenue,  254,  255  ; 
their  reception  of  Stamp  Act, 
255,  256  ;  convene  a  Congress, 
256  ;  their  reception  of  Boston 
Port  Bill,  279 ;  the  Thirteen 
first  assemble  in  the  Second 
Congress,  291;  "colonies" 
give  place  to  "  States  "     .         .   297 

Commercial  relations,  colonial     .     29 

Commissions  of  governors,  cus- 
tom lent  the  force  of  charters 
to  ....     39  and  n. 

Committee  of  safety,  284 ;  of 
confederation,  of  treaties  .   297 

Committees    of    correspondence, 

256,  271 

Common  law.  The,  brought  with 
the  colonists,  40,  42  ;  Mans- 
field concerning        .  .         40  n. 

"  Common  Sense,"  Paine's  work, 
its  effect  ....  294 

Commonwealth  and  Churches, 
another  name  for  Church  and 
State        .         .         .         .         .Ill 

Compacts,  the  charters  construed 
as,  38,  220  n.  ;  the  Mayflower 
C. ,  84  et  seq. 


326 


INDEX, 


Concord,  Affair  of,  288,  289 ; 
effect  of      .         .  289,  290 

Congress,  nine  colonies  meet  in 
New  York,  256 ;  general  im- 
pulse toward,  275,  280;  the 
First,  281  ;  Chatham's  opinion 
of  the  First,  283,  284;  the 
Second    .....  291 

Connecticut,  a  charter  govern- 
ment, 36  ;  dernocratic,  44  ;  re- 
monstrates against  Port  Duty 
Act  .         .  .         .   254 

Conscience,  see  tit.  *'  Freedom  of 
C." 

Conservatives  or  *  ^©derates.  The  282 

Conway,  for  repeal  of  Stamp  Act  257 

Cotton,  John,  titles  of  some  of  his 
books,  104  n.  ;  on  Williams' 
expulsion  .         .         .         .110 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  character  of 
his  dictatorship,  8  ;  condition  in 
which  his  death  left  the  Revo- 
lution, 8;  confirms  Baltimore's 
patent       .        .         .         .         .68 

Crown  Point,  Surprise  of     .         .   290 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  significant  dec- 
laration of,  271  ;  displaced       .  292 

Daveriant,  Charles       .         .         .   206 

Debating  society,  an  institution, 
104 ;  effect  of  .         .         .   105 

Declaratory  act,  257,  258,  259 ; 
Chatharh's  opinion  of  .         .  227  n. 

Delaware,  a  proprietary  govern- 
ment, 36  ;  self-government  in, 
43  ;  qualified  toleration  under 
Swedish  occupation  of     .  67  and  n. 

Descent,  one  of  Burke's  six 
sources,  etc.,  29  ;  considered, 
30 ;  race  purity  .         .         164,  165 

De  Tocqueville,  on  the  town- 
ship    .         .         .         .         .   175  n. 

Development,  Historical  plan  or 
law  of,  the  standard  of,  95  ;  hovr 
the  true  condition  of  a  people 
is  to  be  ascertained,  96  ;  homo- 
geneity of  the  law  of,  96,  97  ; 
slow  action  of,  97  ;  illustrated 
from  English  history,  97,  98  ; 
d.  of  New  England  character  .     99 

Dialects,  effect  of  negro  and  In- 
dian, upon  the  English  lan- 
guage      .         .         .         .         .130 

Dickinson,  John,  his  "Farmer's 
Letters,"  262  ;  leader  of  the 
Moderates.  282  ;  draws  peti- 
tion to  the  king,  290  ;  instruc- 
tions to  Pennsylvania  delegates, 
293  ;  resists  the  Progressives    .  294 


Discussion,  theological,  in  New 
England,    too,    loi,    102,    103, 

104,  105  ;  political,  in  the  South  132 
Disdain  of  provincials,  a  support 

to  absolutism,  17  ;  an  incentive 
to  colonial  independence      .   56,  57 
Disputation  among  American  Pu- 
ritans, 100  ;  its  uses,  102,  103, 
104  ;  it  becomes  secular,    104, 

105,  114;  see  tit.   "Debating 
Society." 

Dissent,  nature  of,  60  et.  seq.  ;  in 
Virginia  at  time  of  Revolu- 
tion    ....   145  n. 

Distinctness  of  colonial  autono- 
my .         .         .         .   36  ^/  seq. 

Distribution,  of  land  and  water, 
see  tit.  "Chesapeake  Bay," 
"Virginia,"  "Maryland";  of 
population,  126,  127  ;  causes  of 
d.  of  population,  128  ;  isola- 
tion in  the  South,  and  effects, 
128,  129,  130,  131,  133  ;  con- 
centration in  New  England, 
id.,  168,  169 ;  of  land  in 
estates,  181  ;  of  intestates' 
estates,  182;  land  as  assets       .   183 

Divisions  of  society,  not  obstruc- 
tive, in  America       .         .         .14 

Domestic  life  in  South       .   134  et  seq, 

Dowdeswell,  urges  repeal  of 
Stamp  Act,  257  ;  resists  pas- 
sage of  Boston  Port  Bill  .   276 

Dummer,  Jeremiah,  on  the  grants 
in  charters,  220  n.         .         .   221  n. 

Dutch,  The,  maritime  supremacy 
of,  187,  i83  ;  decline  of  .   1S9,  192 

Dutch,  Pennsylvania       .    147,  163  n. 

Edonton,  population  of  .         .   128  n. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  104 ;  his  ci- 
tations from  Shepard   .         .   104  n. 

Elections,  in  the  South         .         .   133 

Eliot,  John,  acquires  the  Indian 
tongues      .         .         .         .88,  ""6 

Ellenborough,  Lord,  on  the  com- 
mon law  in  colonies        .         .  40  n. 

Emigration,  the  great  Anglican, 
5  ;  homogeneity  of,  24  ;  from 
Ireland  begins     .  .  .   I2i  n. 

English  officers,  conduct  of,  tow- 
ard colonial  troops         .    153,  185  n. 

♦English  people.  The,  their  sense 
of  superiority  to  colonists,  17; 
abetted  absolutism,  265,  277, 
278,  279  ;  when  not  represented 
by  Parliament  .  .  .  28d 

Eras,  of  English  history  from  be- 
ginning of  Reformation,  5,  6, 


INDEX. 


3^7 


7  ;  the  destructive,  6  et  seq,  ; 
the  constructive,  8  ;  of  effort, 
12 ;  of  colonial  development, 
25  ;  their  motives  and  charac- 
teristics, 25,  26  ;  the  expansive 
force  of  colonial,  25  ;  how  this 
force  acted,  25,  26 ;  the  tri- 
logy of,  necessary  to  compre- 
hension of  American  Revolu- 
tion, 26  ;  review  of      .         300,  301 

Established  Church  (Establish- 
ment), see  tit.  "Church of  Eng- 
land." 

Evelyn,  John»  member  of  Board 
of  Lords  of  Trade  and  Planta- 
tions, quotations  from     .     309,  310 

Extremists  or  Progressives,  The  .   282 

Family,  The,  unit  of  Southern 
society     .         .         .         .         .134 

Farmer's  letters.  The,  .         .  262 

Fisheries,  The,  Coke  on  monopo- 
ly of,  198  n  ;  Child  upon,  210  ; 
right  of,  granted  in  charter     2io  n. 

Forms  of,  colonial  governments, 
one  of  Burke's  six  sources,  29  ; 
consideration  of  .  31  ^/  seq. 

Fortescue,  Sir  Maurice,  letter  to 
Chesterfield    .         .         .         120  n. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  resists  pas- 
sage of  Boston  Port  Bill  .         .  276 

Fox,  George,  founds  Society  of 
Friends,  63  ;  his  denial  of  au- 
thority in  matters  of  conscience, 
64  ;  answered  by  Roger  Will- 
iams        .         .         .         .         .66 

Franchises,  growth  of,  38,  39 ; 
forfeiture  of  Virginia's,  41 ;  pro- 
fuse dispensation  of,  54  ;  grant- 
ed in  charters  .  .  210  n. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  Hume's 
opinion  of,  157  ;  his  printing 
press,  160 ;  statement  concern- 
ing colonial  aid  to  England, 
251  n.;  his  observation  on  pub- 
lic feeling  in  England,  268,  274; 
political  publications  of,  274  n.; 
before  the  Council,  274  n.;  dis- 
charged from  office,  275  n.; 
consulted  by  Chatham      .         .   2S5 

Free  Inquiry,  its  advance  during 
the  Protectorate,  7  ;  review  of 
its  work,  298  et  seq. ;  see  tit. 
*'  Freedom  of  Conscience." 

Free  trade  .....  206 

Freedom  of  Conscience,  first  es- 
tablishment of,  in  England,  7  ; 
first  appearance  there,  97  ;  of 
what  era  the  mastering  spirit. 


25  ;  includes  free  action  of  the 
mind,  25  ;  the  prominent  feat- 
ure of  religion  in  the  North, 
59  ;  American  colonies  appar-  . 
enily  unfavorable  to,  59,  60, . 
62  ;  short  duration  of  unfavor- 
able conditions,  60,  62  ;  dissent 
heretical,  60 ;  subordination  of 
the  State  to  the  Church, 60,  61; 
rule  for  ascertaining  presence 
of  toleration  or  of  intolerance, 
62,  m  ;  Maryland  and  Penn- 
sylvania notable  exceptions  to 
prevailing  intolerance,  62 ; 
greatest,  in  Rhode  Island,  69  ; 
condition  of,  when  Quakers 
settled  Pennsylvania,  66,  67, 
68,  69  ;  arrival  of  Quakers  turns 
the  tide  in  favor  of,  60,  62,  68, 
69  ;  declaration  of,  in  West 
Jersey,  70  ;  assertion  of,  in 
Pennsylvania,  72,  75  ;  Quaker- 
ism necessarily  favorable  to,  72; 
73  ;  restriction  upon,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, 76,  77,  78  ;  passive- 
ness  of  Quakerism  aided,  81  ; 
settlement  of  Massachusetts 
stimulated  by  intolerance,  83, 
84,  87  ;  hostility  of  Puritanism 
in  America  to,  92  et  seq.,  spar- 
sim  ;  course  and  historical  de- 
velopment of,  in  England,  97, 
98  ;  not  thoroughly  understood 
by  those  first  maintaining  it, 
98  ;  slow  to  become  a  social 
force,  98 ;  rapid  development 
of,  after  the  Reformation,  98  ; 
not  yet  a  principle  of  action  at 
period  of  Anglican  migration, 
98  ;  becomes  such  during  Eng- 
lish civil  war,  9S  ;  notion  of, 
before  and  after  advent  of 
Roger  Williams,  106  ;  Massa- 
chusetts Puritans  distrusted 
principle  of,  loS  ;  this  princi- 
ple involved  in  trial  of  Roger 
Williams,  no,  in  ;  this  trial 
discloses  existence  and  condi- 
tion of,  in  Massachusetts,  no; 
is  the  starting-point  of,  as  a 
social  force.  III  ;  soul-liberty, 
112 ;  divorce  of  Church  and 
Slate,  112,  113;  theological 
dispute  gives  way  to  secular  de- 
bate, 114:  the  Ship  of  State, 
115  n.;  causes  of,  North  and 
South,  123  ;  review  of  its  work 
in  America,         ,,  "     #        300  301 


3^8 


INDEX. 


French  in  America,  The,  a  men- 
ace, i6  ;  their  colonies,  49 ; 
non-institutional  character  of, 
49.  5O1  51.  52  ;  effect  of  de- 
struction of  French  power  in 
America  .         .         .     185,  1S6 

Friends,  Society  of,  see  tit. 
"Quakerism." 

Frontier,  The,  147  et  seq.j  the 
frontiersman,  148,  149,  150 ; 
life  of,  favorable  to  personal 
freedom  and  local  self-govern- 
ment      ...     152,  153 

Gage,  General,  fortifies,  283  ;  is 
recalled  ....  292 

Galloway,  Joseph,  on  mutual  in- 
dependence of  colonies     .  36  n. 

Gaspee,  The  affair  of  .         .271 

Gee,  Joshua,  215  ;  his  treatise, 
215,  216  ;  the  first  writer  to  ad- 
vocate making  the  colonies 
sources  of  revenue,  216 ;  his 
scheme  approved,  and  work  re- 
published .         .         .         .218 

George  II.,  prudent  course  le- 
specting  the  colonies,  Adams' 
commendation  of  .        226  n. 

George  III.,  methods  of  abso- 
lutism under,  16  et  scq. ;  insists 
upon  revenues  from  colonies     .   267 

Georgia,  a  royal  government,  36; 
scanty  colonial  life,  45  ;  takes 
its  place  in  Second  Congress     .   291 

Gennain,  Lord  George         .         .   292 

Governments,  Colonial,  Forms  of 
the  ;  see  tit.  "  Forms  of  Coloni- 
al Governments." 

Governors,  Commissions  of,  a 
substitute  for  charters    .     39  and  n. 

Grafton,  Duke  of,  for  repeal  of 
Revenue  Acts  .         .         .   267 

Granville,  Lord,  on  Royal  In- 
structions         ....   268 

Greece,  its  colonies  .        33,  34 

Greene,  Nathaniel,  taunt  of  .   271 

Grenville,  George,  how  he  lost 
America,  227  ;  character  of, 
249,  263  n.;  his  notion  of  co- 
lonial obligation,  249  ;  wherein 
erroneous,  250,  251  ;  determines 
upon  making  the  colonies 
sources  of  revenue,  253,  254  ; 
irresolution  of,  267  ;  last  speech 
and  death  of    .         .         .        268  n. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  passed  un- 
der Charles  II.,  12  ;  of  no  force 
in  the  colonics,  14  ;  refused  to 
■America  bv  William  III.  ^       .15 


Harrison,  reports  that  a  Declara. 
tion  of  Independence  has  been 
agreed  upon  .         .         .297 

Harvard  University,  library  of, 
88  ;  character  of        .         .         .171 

Henry,  Patrick,  startles  the 
House  of  Burpesses  .  .   256 

Hicks,  Elias,  notion  of  the  Script- 
ures, 64  n.;  seeks  to  restore 
Quakerism        .  .  .  .65 

Hillsborough,  Lord.  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  colonies,  offended 
by  the  Circular  Letter,  263 ; 
issues  order  for  payment  of 
colonial  judges  from  imperial 
treasury  .  .  .  .271 

Hooke,  William,  apostrophe  to 
Old  England  .         .          82  n. 

House  of  Siuart,  colonization 
chiefly  effected  under,  53  ;  ser- 
vices of,  to  freedom  of  con- 
science, 63  ;  the  Quakers'  re- 
gard for  .         .         .         .80 

Howes,  The,  in  command  of  the 
American  forces        .  .         .   292 

Hume,  David      ....   157 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  on  domin- 
ion, 35  n. ;  on  effect  of  govern- 
ors' commissions,  39  n.;  on  1 
force  of  Acts  of  Parliament  in 
America,  202  n.;  opinion  of,  re- 
specting Committee  of  Corre- 
spondence, 271  ;  intercepted 
letters  of,  brings  Franklin  be- 
fore the  Council        .          .         .   274 

Independence,  movements  tow- 
ard, 293,  294,  295  ;  resolutions 
and  debate  concerning,  296 ; 
new  discussion  of,  question  of, 
settled,  297  ;  Declaration  of     .   297. 

Independents ;  see  tit.  "  Brownists.'* 

Individuality  in  Southern  char- 
acter, 133  ;  moved  to  act  as  a 
social  force      .         .         .         •  3  '  j 

Institutions,  definition  of,  48,  49  ;  ' 

institutional  nature  of  English 
colonies,  48  ;  a  tribal  character- 
istic, 49  ;  non-institutional  na- 
ture of  French  colonies,  49, 
50»  5 If  52  ;  natural  develop- 
ment of  English,  49  ct  scq,, 
antiquity  of  American,  52,  53  ; 
have  their  root  in  local  self- 
government,  54  ;  and  in  love  of 
the  soil,  55  ;  appear  simultane- 
ously with  the  settlers,  56  ;  of 
New  England,  164,  i66  ;  devcl- 

^  opment  of  tribal      .  _     .     25,  301 


INDEX. 


329- 


Intolerance  ;  see  tit.  "  Freedom 
of  Conscience." 

Ireland,  Emigration  from,  began 

121  n. 

Jamaica  remonstrates  against  Port  • 
Duty  Act  .         .         .         .255 

Jefferson,  Thomas, on  intolerance 
in  Virginia,  67  n. ,  146  ;  his  rea- 
son for  absence  of  boroughs  in 
Virginia,  127  n.;  on  parishes, 
House  of  Delegates,  132  n.; 
opinion  of  Virginia  resolution 
for  a  Congress  .         .         .   2S1 

Judges,  The,  not  independent  of 
the  crown,  14  ;  became  so,  205  ; 
independence  of,  threatened, 
245  ;  payment  out  of  imperial 
treasury  ordered       .  .         .   271 

Juries  of  the  vicinage  .         .  205 

Keith,  Sir  William,  proposes  to 
derive  revenue  from  the  colo- 
nies, Walpole's  reply        ,         .  227 

Laissez-faire  policy,  The,  31,  56; 
the  best  policy  .    225,226,227 

Land  as  assets     ....   183 

Language,  Purity  of,  in  the  South 

129,  130,  131 

Learning  in  New  England 

88,  100,  lor,  102,  103 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  seeks  the 
union  of  the  colonies,  272  ; 
submits  resolutions  respecting 
independence  .  .         .   296 

Lexington,  Affair  of,  288,  289 ; 
effect  of  ...    289,  290 

Library,  City,  of  Philadelphia 

157  et  seq. 

Libraries,  in  New  England,  be- 
ginnings of       .  .  .  .88 

Local  self-government,  48  et 
seq.  ;  a  race-craving,  57,  58, 
204,205.  See  tit.  *' Love  of  the 
Soil,"  "  Institutions,"  **  Fron- 
tier," etc.  .... 

Locke's  constitution,  vanity  of    .     45 

Logan,  James,  his  love  of  books, 
156  ;  the  Loganian  collection 

157  and  u. 

London,  sympathized  with  the 
colonies,  18  :  controlled,  with 
Bristol,  colonial  trade       .  -57 

Mahon,  Lord,  on  provincialism  of 
English  gentry  of  i8ih  century, 
144  ;  on  convict  transportation 
to  colonies,  224  n.;  opinion  of 
Chatham's  Bill         .         .         .   286 

Manners  in  the  Southern  Prov- 
inces,    one       of    Burke's      six 


sources,      124  ;      consideration 

of     .  .  .  .  1 24  ^z*  seq. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  on  the  common 
law  in  the  colonies,  40  n.  ;  his 
opinion  concerning  contumacy 
of  Massachusetts  Legislature, 
264 ;  concerning  intention  of 
colonies  to  be  independent       .  310 

Manufacturing  system.  The         .   206 

Marblehead,  offers  the  Bostonians 
the  use  of  its  wharves       .         .  280 

Maryland,  see  tit.  "  Freedom  of 
Conscience " ;  a  Proprietary 
Government,  36 ;  charter  of 
-self-government,  43,  121,  122  ; 
the  first  to  guarantee  religious 
liberty,  60,  12 r,  122  ;  orderly 
settlement  of,  78,  79  ;  Puritans 
in,  68  ;  faith  in,  ii"]  ct  seq.; 
Calvert,  founder  of,  118;  topog- 
raphy of  .  .         .  125  ^/  seq. 

Mas^^achusetts,  see  tit.  "  Puritan- 
ism," "Freedom  of  Conscience," 
etc.  ;  a  Charter  Government, , 
36  ;  self-government  in,  44  ; 
intolerance  in,  59,  83,  84,  87, 
92  et  seq.  sparsim,  108,  IIO, 
III  ;  oligarchy  in,  86,  87,  108  ; 
education  in.  100,  loi,  167, 
i63  ;  pays  her  advancements  to 
England,  and  her  indebted- 
ness, 249  ;  protests  against  Port 
Duty  Act,  253  n.  ;  her  Circular 
Letter,  263,  264  ;  Government 
Bill  or  Regulating  Act,  277  ; 
Legislature  removed  to  Salem  .   281 

Mather,  Cotton,  his  literary  fe- 
cundity ....         104  n. 

Mauduit,  Israel,  on  grants  in 
charters         .  .  38  n.,  220  n. 

Mayflower  Compact,  The,  84  ; 
Mr.  Justice  .Story's  opinion  of, 
commented  upon,  85;  analyzed 
and  discussed    .         .  85,  86,  87 

Mennonites,  The,  settled  German- 
town         .....   i6i 

Mental  action,  of  a  people,  law 
of  its  advance  and  retrogres- 
sion        .  .  .  .  12,  13 

Mercantile  system.  The        .  .   206 

Migration,  The  Anglican,  5  ;  the 
Brownist,  Independent,  or  Pil- 
grim, 84  ;  the  Puritan,  83,  87  et  seq. 

Moderates  or  Conservatives,  The, 
led  by  Dickinson,  282  ;  course 
of 293 

Molasses  or  Sugar  Acts,  The,  234, 
235,  236  ;  interpretation  of,  by 


330 


INDEX, 


government,  235  ;  really  rev- 
enue acts,  236  ;  enforcement  of.   237 

Monopoly,  when  popularized,  7  ; 
of  tobacco,  46,  47,  48  ;  effect 
of  Navigation  Act  upon,  193  ; 
of  fisheries,  198  n.  ;  nature  of 
English,  193,  194  ;  under  Ads 
of  Navigation  and  Trade  .   222 

Montcalm,  Marquis  de,  could  not 
save  French  power  in  America, 
50  ;  this  power  fell  with  him    .     51 

Montesquieu,  his  notion  of  the 
colonies  .  .  .  195  n. 

Movement,  The  Great,  or  Revo- 
lution, 5  etseq.;  nomenclature 
of,  8  ;  different  phases  of,  9  et 
seq.  ;  critical  deductions  from, 
12,  13  ;  its  effect  upon  Ameri- 
can character,  13  ;  the  means 
it  employed      .         .         .        10,  11 

Mun,  Thomas     ....  206 

Murray,  Lindley  .         .         .   161 

Navigation  Act,  see  tit.  "  Act  of 
Navigation." 

Newcastle,  Duke  of     .  .      iS 

New  England,  13  ;  self-govern- 
ment in,  43  ;  see  diff.  tit.  of 
N.  E.  Colonies,  "Puritanism," 
"  Freedom  of  Conscience  "  ;  ra- 
tionalism in,  82  ei  seq.  ;  her 
five  advantages,  164  et  seq.  ; 
Child's  description  of  people 
of,  products  same  as  tht)se  of 
England,  210;  competitor  with 
England,  210,  211;  her  charters, 
210  n.;  increase  of  trade  of       .211 

New  Hampshire,  a  Royal  Gov- 
ernment, 36  ;  self-government 
in,  44  ;  churchly,  not  Puritan  .     44 

New  Jersey.  Proprietary,  after- 
ward a  Royal  Government,  36  ; 
self-government  in,  43  ;  West 
Jersey,  democracy,  popular  gov- 
ernment, freedom  of  conscience, 
Quakerism  in,   .         .         69,  70,  72 

New  York,  a  Royal  Government, 
self-government  in,  36,  45  ;  in- 
tolerance in,  67  ;  remonstrates 
against  Port  Duty  Act,  254  ; 
nine  colonies  convene  at  city 
of,  256  ;  excused  from  voting 
on  question  of  independence     .   297 

Non  -  importation,  associations, 
262  ;  broken,  270 ;  renewed, 
273  ;  Congress  enters  into        .   283 

Norfolk,    Population  of      .  128  n. 

North,  Lord,  for  partial  repeal 
of   revenue   acta,   267 ;    effects 


drawbacks  on  teas,  273  ;  en- 
deavors to  conciliate        .         .  287 

Old  Colony,  Plymouth  settle- 
ment called      .  .  .         .88 

Oliver,  Lt. -Governor,  letters  in- 
tercepted .         .         .         .274 

Otis,  James,  his  interpretation  of 
English  writings  respecting  the 
colonies,  208  ;  his  argument 
against  Writs  of  Assistance, 
237-244  ;  speech  minuted  by 
Adams,  244  and  n.  ;  effect  of 
argument  upon  the  colonists, 
245  ;  a  forerunner  of  revolu- 
tion, 245,  246  ;  John  Adams' 
opinion  of  the  argument,  246 
n.  ;  overthrew  doctrine  of  par- 
liamentary supremacy       .  .   299 

Paine,  Thomas,  his  work  "  Com- 
mon Sense "     .         .         .         .  294 

Parishes,  in  the  South         .         132  n. 

Parliament,  how  far  authority  of, 
extended  to  colonies,  217  n.  ; 
when  it  did  not  represent  the 
people,  284;  notion  of  suprema- 
cy of,  293,  299  ;  the  instrument 
of  absolutism,  299;  freedom  of.  300 

Pemberton,  Israel,  his  encounter 
with  John  Adams  on  the  sub- 
ject of  toleration     .  .  166  n. 

Penn,  William,  see  tit.  "  Quaker- 
ism," "Pennsylvania,"  "Free- 
dom of  Conscience." 

Penn,  Richard,  bears  petition  to 
the  king  .....   291 

Pennsylvania,  settlement  of,  a 
direct  result  of  moral  agitation 
in  Europe,  13  ;  a  Proprietary 
Government,  36  ;  self-govern- 
ment in,  43,  160  ;  foundation 
of»  73  !  origin  of  name,  73  n.  ; 
charter  of,  tenure  of  land  of, 
73,  74  ;  freedom  of  conscience 
permitted  but  not  asserted  by 
charter,  74  ;  prudence  in  set- 
tlement of,  75,  78,  79  ;  free- 
dom of  conscience  asserted  by 
legislation,  75,  76  ;  restricted 
immediately  by  the  people,  76; 
the  (jreat  Law  of  Chester,  76, 
77,  78  ;  humane  motive  in  set- 
tlement of,  78  n.  ;  popular 
government  in,  origin  of,  81  : 
University  of,  157;  agricult- 
ure, commerce,  159,  160;  ed- 
ucation in,  161  ;  mixed  popu- 
lation of,  161,  162  ;  spirit  of 
liberty  in  .         .         .         .   163 


INDEX. 


33l 


Percy,  Lord,  commands  retreat 
from  Lexington        .         .         .  289 

Petty,  Sir  William       .         .         .  206 

Philadelphia,  progressive  party 
in,  154,  155  ;  character  of, 
155  ;  trade,  elegance,  learning, 
156;  157  ;  libraries,  learned 
societies,  157,  160  ;  social  life 
of,  158,  159;  Congress  meets 
in 282 

Philadelphia  City  Library  .  157  et  seq. 

Piedmont  of  Virginia,  The,  how 
and  when  settled,  144,  145  ; 
conflict  with  Church  and  State, 
145,  146  ;  dissent  in,  145  n.  ; 
more  democratic  than  lowlands 

146,  147 

Pitt,  William,  see  tit.  "  Lord 
Chatham "        , 

Planter,  The  Southern,  his  life, 
habits,  character,  130  et  seq.  ; 
his  land  speculations,  135,  136  ; 
field  sports  of,  136,  137  ;  his 
respect  for  woman,  137,  138  ; 
hospitality,  social  life  of,  138, 

139  ;  his  refinement,  139  ;  his 
winter  visit  to  the  capital,  139, 

140  ;  his  home,  patriarchial 
life,  140,  141  ;  his  commerce 
with  England,  141,  142  ;  the 
squirearchy,  English  and  Amer- 
ican     .         .         .         142,  143,  144 

Plymouth  or  Pilgrim  settlement, 
The,  43  ;  the  Old  Colony,  88  ; 
a  Brownist  settlement,  84,  88  n.,  90 
Political  Economists,  Early  Eng- 
lish   206 

Policy   of   Great   Britain    toward 

the  colonies,  31,  56,    225.  226, 

227  ;  change  in         .      16,  227,  228 

Port  Duty  Act     .         .         .         .252 

Praemunire,    Writ  of,    119  ;    for 

what  it  issued,  itg,  120  ;  pains 

of 120 

Presbyterianism     (Presbyterians), 
organizes  into  a  party,  89  ;  sym- 
pathy between,  and  Puritans    .     90 
Privy  Council      .         .         .         •      ^5 
Proclamation  of  Rebellion  .  .   292 

Progressives  or  Extremists,  The, 

282  ;  course  of  .         .    295,  296 

Protective  System,  The  .  .  206 
Puritanism  (Puritans),  what  it 
was,  and  what  it  did  for  Eng- 
land, 9  et  seq;  defence  of  politi- 
cal P.,  10,  11;  early  P.  not 
dissent,  60  ;  in  America,  ex- 
pelled Roger  Williams,  6i  ;  P. 


in  Maryland,  68  ;  American  P. 
the  same  as  English,  83  ;  settle- 
ment in  Massachusetts,  83,  84, 
87  ;  P.  emigrants  socially  of  a 
higher  class  than  the  Pilgrims, 
87,  88  ;  learning  of  N.  Eng. 
P.,  88  ;  early  English  P.  merely 
reform,  8,  89,  91,  107 ;  sym- 
pathy between  P.  and  Presby- 
terians, 90  ;  not  when  Bro waists 
left  England,  90 ;  horror  of 
Rome  and  of  Brownists,  90,  91; 
first  reform,  afterward  dissent, 

91  ;  the  second  N.  E.  emigra- 
tion absolutely  Puritan,  91  ; 
colonization  of  N.  E.  due  to  P., 
91,  92;  real  P.  emigration  when, 

92  ;  P.  emigration  impelled  by 
no  lofty  or  humane  motives,  92, 

93  ;  monarchical  and  conform- 
ist, 93  ;  their  notion  of  freedom 
imperfect  and  of  slow  growth, 
93,  94  ;  unsocial  disposition  of, 
94, 95 ;  early  history  in  America 
uneventful,  99  ;  its  theologi- 
cal strife,  100  ;  great  learning, 
but  no  literary  class  among, 
100,  loi  ;  character  of  its  lit- 
erature, 102  ;  rage  for  disputa- 
tion among,  102,  103  ;  the  pur- 
poses subserved  by  this  dispu- 
tation, 103,  104  ;  theological 
subjects  give  way  to  secular, 
105  ;  view  of  Roger  Williams' 
case  from  P.  standpoint,  108, 
109;  intolerance  of  P.  oligarchy. 
Ill  ;  and  see  Appendix  C. 

Quakerism,  an  example  of  con- 
science and  State  instead  of 
Church  and  State,  63  ;  its  ad- 
vent in  America  propitious  to 
freedom  of  conscience,  63,  68  ; 
mystical  nature  of,  64,  65,  66  ; 
the  Inner  Light,  and  denial  of 
dogmatic  authority,  64  ;  pre- 
supposes freedom  of  conscience, 
64,  72  ;  its  passiveness,  64 ; 
failure  of,  in  practical  life.  65  ; 
seeks  the  Middle  Colonies,  66  ; 
reasons  for  this  step,  66,  67  ; 
distressed  condition  of  tolera- 
tion when  Quakerism  appeared, 
68  ;  it  turned  the  day  in  favor 
of  freedom  of  conscience,  69 ; 
the  Quakers  settle  West  Jer- 
sey, 69  ;  their  assertion  of  pow- 
er in  the  people,  69,  70  ;  their 
assertion  of  absolute  freedom  of 


332 


INDEX. 


conscience,  70  ;  popular  form 
of  their  government,  70,  71  ; 
their  political  constitution  criti- 
cised, 71,  72  ;  their  common- 
wealth a  pure  democracy,  71,  72; 
the  Quakers  settle  Pennsyl- 
vania, 72  ;  Pennsylvania  a  re- 
sult of  West  Jersey,  72  ;  histori- 
cal importance  of  Quakerism 
in  Pennsylvania,  72 ;  finds  a 
necessary  expression  in  freedom 
of  conscience,  72,  73  ;  fidelity 
of,  to  this  principle,  72,  73 ; 
Penn's  charter,  73,  74  ;  it  does 
not  assure  freedom  of  con- 
science in  terms,  74  ;  that  assur- 
ance given  in  the  laws,  75,  76  ; 
the  broad  principle  of  the 
founder  not  maintained  in  the 
legislation  of  the  people,  76,  77, 
78  ;  the  Great  Law  of  Chester, 
76,  77,  73  ;  order  a  character- 
istic of,  79,  80  ;  friendly  to  the 
House  of  Stuart,  80  ;  passive- 
ness  of,  a  conslilutional  force, 
80,  81  ;  how  it  aided  freedom 
of  conscience,  81  ;  America  in- 
debted to  Q.,  Si;  mentioned  by 

Child 209 

Quebec  Act,  The  .    277,  278,  280 

Randolph,    Peyton,    chairman  of 

First  Congress  .  .  .   282 

Regulating  Act  or,  Massachusetts 

Government  Bill       .  .  .   277 

Regulation;  sec  tit.  "Restrictive 

System." 
Religion   in  the  Northern   Prov- 
inces,    one      of     Burke's     six 
sources,   29 ;    consideration    of 

59  et  seij. 
Remoteness   of  Situation,  one  of 
Burke's  six  sources,  30  ;  a  cause 
of  the  Laissez-faire  policy,  31  ; 
contributes  to  self-government, 
56  ;    compensation    for  restric- 
tion not  a  result  of  .  .   204 
Representation,  early  in  Virginia. 
41,  47,  48  ;  generally  acquired 
soon,  43,  44,  45,  46  ;  granted  in 
Maryland     Charter,     122  ;     in 
Pennsylvania,  43,  160;  colonial, 
in  British    Parliament  imprac- 
ticable, 204  ;  for,  in  the  several 
colonies,  see          .          .         .  43-45 
Resolve  of  15th  May,  1776           .   295 
Resolves  of  vSuffolk  County           .  282 
Resolves,  The  Virginia         .          .   266 
Restrictive  System,  The,  see   tit. 


"Act  of  Navigation,"  "Acts  of 
Trade,"  "Trade,"  "Child," 
"Gee,"  "Ashley,"  etc.;  in- 
crease of  English  trade  under, 
192  n.;  what  the  system  was, 
198,  199  ;  pecuniary  compen- 
sation for,  199  et  sei],  ;  political 
compensation  for,  203  et  seq.  ; 
literature  of,205  etseq.;  changed 
colonial  relations  to  England, 
214,  2x6  ;  consideration  of,  221 
et  seq.  ;  imposed  new  character 
upon  colonies,  222  ;  controlling 
principle  of,  222;  not  censurable 
by  colonists,  223  ;  defects  of, 
224  ;  enlargement  of,  233  ;  ex- 
tremes of,    .         .         233  n.,  234  n. 

Revolution,  The  Great,  see  tit 
"  Movement,  The  Great,  or  I\." 

Revolution  of  1688,  what  it  was, 
and  what  it  did  for  England,  8 
n,  12,  298  ;  its  effects  upon 
America  indirect,  13  ;  did  not 
give  America  constitutional  gov- 
ernment, 13,  14  ;  how  it  injured 
colonial  liberty     .  .  .14,  15 

Revolution  of  1776,  arbitrary  tax- 
ation the  immediate  cause  of, 
19  ;  at  first  an  attempt  to  re- 
dress grievances  only,  19  ;  a 
manifestation  of  same  force 
which  produced  R.  of  1688,  19; 
necessary  sequence  to  R.  of 
16S8 ;  resulted  in  transferring 
sovereignty  from  throne  to  peo- 
ple, 19 ;  moral  effect  of  upon 
other  peoples,  20  ;  character  of 
actors  and  of  the  cause,  20,  21, 
22,  23  ;  beginning  of,  246  ;  ter- 
mination of,  23  ;  qualities  in 
which  it  was  rich,  24  ;  Trilogy 
of  Eras  preceding,  25  ;  knowl- 
edge of,  necessary  to  compre- 
hend, 26  ;  gave  America  con- 
stitutional government  .   300 

Revolutions,  Character  of,  23 ; 
when  they  terminate  .  .     23 

Rhode  Island,  a  Charter  Govern- 
ment, 36  ;  self-government  in, 
44,  45  ;  freedom  of  conscience 
in,  59  ;  rationalism  of,  63;  Qua- 
kerism debated  in,  66  ;  remon- 
strates against  Port  Duty  Act, 
254 ;   overawed         .  .  .   271 

Richard  II.,  Navigation  Act  of    .    186 

Robertson,  Dr.,  his  surprise  con- 
cerning the  charters,  comment- 
ed upon      .         .         .  37  et  seq. 


INDEX. 


353 


Hockingham,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of ,  257;  supports  Chatham, 
285  ;  his  description  of  public 
feeling,        .  .         .         279,   292 

Roman  Catholics,  burdened  con- 
dition of ,  in  England,  119,  120 
n.;  seek  Maryland      .  117,  118 

Rome,  its  colonies  .  31  et  seq. 

Royal  Instructions  268,  269,   270 

Salem,  generous  conduct  of,  tow- 
ard Boston,  280 ;  legislature 
removed  to       .  .  .         .281 

Saltonslall,  Sir  Richard,  remon- 
strance     against      intolerance, 

305,  Appendix  C. 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  protects  Vir- 
ginian tobacco  .         .         .46 

Schools  ;  see  tit.  *  Massachu- 
setts," "Pennsylvania,"  "Vir- 
ginia," etc. 

Shelburne,  Lord,  supports  Chat- 
ham   285 

Shepard,  Thomas        .         .        104  n. 

Smith,  Adam,  his  notion  of  the 
colonies  .         .         .         195  n. 

Soul-liberty  (Roger  Williams'), 
112,   113 

South  Carolina  remonstrates 
against  Port  Duty  Act      .         .  254 

Sovereignty  transferred  from 
throne  to  people  .         .         19,  301 

Spain,  her  colonial  policy,  spirit 
of 17 

St.  John,  Henry,  Act  of  Naviga- 
tion attributed  to      .  .         . 

190,  and  also  n.,  igi,  I96 

Stamp  Act,  Appendix  G  ;  passed, 
255  ;  reception  of,  in  America, 
255  ;  repealed,  257  ;  effects  of, 
25S,  270  ;  Chatham  upon,  217  ; 
preamble  of  .         320,  Appendix  G. 

Story,  Mr.  Justice,  his  view  of 
Mayflower  Compact  controvert- 
ed      .         .         .  .         85  <r/  seq. 

Suffolk,  County  of.  Resolutions  of  2S2 

Sugar  Acts,  The,  see  tit.  "Molas- 
ses Acts."         .... 

Taxation,  unlawful,  immediate 
cause  of  colonial  revolt,  19 ; 
colonies  exempt  from  imperial, 
45.  ^6 

Tea  Act,  see  tit.  "  Townsliend 
Acts";  retention  of  duty  on  tea, 
267  ;  concedes  drawback  to 
Americans,  273  ;  in  aid  of  East 
India  Company,  273  ;  reception 
of  ships  in  yVmerica  .  .  275 

Ticonderoga,  Fort,  surprise  of     .  290 


Toleration,  see  tit.  "  Freedom  of 
Conscience."    .... 

Topography  of  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia .         .         .  125  et  seq. 

Townshend,  Charles,  votes  for  re- 
peal of  Stamp  Act,  257  ;  char- 
acter of,  259,  260  ;  policy  of, 
260  ;  death  of  .         .         .         .  262 

Townshend  Acts,  260,  261;  effect 
of 261 

Township,  The,  164,  i^^etseq.  ; 
the  unit  of  Northern  society,  1 74; 
an  autonomy,  174;  source  of  po- 
litical vitality,  174,  175  ;  repre- 
sentative and  executive  forces, 
175,  176  ;  favorable  to  develop- 
ment of  high  forms  of  citizenship, 
177  ;  division  and  concentration 
of  power,  177;  a  local  self- 
government,  177,  178  ;  develops 
practical  art  of  governing,  178, 
179,180;  attachment  of  citizen  to, 
179  ;  reality  of,  180  ;  favorable 
to  fierceness  of  freedom     .    180,  i8l 

Trade,  see  tit.  "Acts  of  Trade"; 
increase  of  English,  192  n. ;  leg- 
islation concerning,  195,  etc.  ; 
treatises  concerning,  zo^etseq.  ; 
increase  of  N.  England    .         .211 

Union,  general  movement  toward, 
275,  2S0,  281  ;  the  Thirteen 
Colonies  unite  in  Second  Con- 
gress        .....  291 

United  States,  The,  results  of  the 
(jreat  Movement  .  .  5,  6 

Universities  and  Colleges        171,   172 

Venn,  his  delenda  est  Carthago  !  .   276 

Virginia,  a  Royal  Government, 
36  ;  forfeiture  of  her  franchises, 
41  ;  conservative  and  aristo- 
cratic, 42  ;  resists  revenue  sys- 
tem, 46  ;  early  representation 
in,  41,  47,  48  ;  intolerance  in, 
67  and  n.  ;  topography  of,  125 
et  seq.;  Bumaby's  character  of 
the  Virginians,  134  n.  ;  educa- 
tion in,  168,  169;  Child's  char- 
acter of,  208  ;  remonstrates 
against  being  made  a  source  of 
revenue,  254,  256;  the  Resolves, 
266  ;  creates  a  committee  of 
correspondence  .         .         .  272 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  corruption 
under,  16  ;  prepares  the  way  for 
absolutism  of  George  III.,  16, 
l3  ;  his  laissez-faire  policy  in 
respect  to  the  colonies,  his  an- 
swer to  Keith  .         .         .  227 


334 


INDEX. 


Ward,  Nathaniel,  intolerance  of, 
j     quotations   from   his    "Simple 
Cobbler  of  Agawam,"  Appendix  C. 

Washington,  George,  is  made 
commander-in-chief  .         .   291 

Wilkes,  John,  elected  Lord 
Mayor,  284  ;  refuses  the  mace 
at  proclamation  of  rebellion      .  292 

William  The  Third,  no  friend  to 
American   colonies,    15  ;   char-   - 
acter  of  colonial  administration 
under,    15  ;  Otis'  denunciation 
of 242 

Williams,  Roger, see  tit,  "Free- 
dom of  Conscience,"  "  Brown- 
ists,"  "  Puritans,"etc.;  disputes 
Quakerism,  replies  to  George 
Fox,  66;  appears  in  Boston,  106; 
his  life-work,  the  first  to  make 
freedom  of  conscience  a  consti- 
tutional principle,  the  First  of 
the  Americans,  106  ;  origin  of, 
107  ;  change  of  religious  views, 
character  of,  at  time  of  arrival  in 
America,  107  ;  expulsion  from 
Massachusetts,  108  ;  facts  of 
the  case,  justihcation  of  expul- 
sion from  Puritan  standpoint, 
108,  109  ;  the  party  that  really 
deserves  censure,  no;  signifi- 
cance of  the  trial,  it  discloses 


the  existence  of  toleration,  no ;  ' 
toleration  and  intolerance  in- 
volved in  the  trial,  iii  ;  start- 
ing-point of  freedom  of  con- 
science as  a  social  force,  in  ; 
soul-liberty,  112  ;  divorce  of 
Church  and  State,  112,  113; 
trial  causes  theological  debate 
to  give  way  to  secular,  114  ;  the 
Ship  of  State,  115  n.  ;  the  friend 
of  the  Indians,  115,  116;  char- 
acter of,  effect  of  his  teachings, 
116,  117  ;  remonstrates  with 
Endicott  ....  306 

Williamsburg,  Population  of,  128 
n.  ;  life  at  .         .         .         139,  140 

Winslow,  Edward,  opinion  of 
Roger  Williams        .  .  .   107 

Winthrop,  John,  conformist  and 
monarchist,  93  ;  the  Winthrop 
immigration  .  .  88,     92 

Woman,  condition  of,  in  the 
South  .  .  .  137,  138 

Writs  of  Assistance,  Otis*  Argu- 
ment concerning,  237  et  seq.  ; 
the  Court  sustains,  247  ;  argu- 
ment upon,  overthrew  doctrine 
of  parliamentary  supremacy      .   299 

Yale  College,  Library  of,  88  ;  char- 
acter of    .         .         .         .         .   171 


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